Polina Barskaya (b. 1984, Cherkasy, Ukraine) is a Brooklyn-based Ukrainian-born artist who received her BA in Fine Arts from Hunter College in 2007, and an MFA from Pratt Institute in 2010. Barskaya’s confessional portraits have a diaristic quality to them. Barskaya’s paintings hone in on the psychological intensity of their subjects and tell stories about the human condition. Typically depicting herself, her husband or her child within a domestic space, Barskaya employs windows and light to create a sense of disconnect and isolation within her works. She has recently been the recipient of the Elizabeth Greenshields Foundation Grant and has exhibited extensively throughout the US.
Solo exhibitions include (Upcoming) Kristin Hjellegjerde Gallery, London (2024); Kristin Hjellegjerde Gallery, West Palm Beach, Florida, USA (2024); Intimism, Monya Rowe Gallery, New York, USA (2023); Travel, Taymour Grahne Projects, London, UK (2023); Monya Rowe Gallery, New York, USA (2021); Time Passing, Taymour Grahne (online) (2021); Paintings, GNYP Gallery, Berlin (2019); Place, Monya Rowe Gallery, Berlin (2019); Brightwater Avenue, Monya Rowe Gallery, New York (2018); Family Affair, Honey Ramka, Brooklyn (2015); Recent Paintings, JCC Manhattan, New York (2013); The Visitors, Kent Place Gallery, Summit (2010).
Group exhibitions include (Upcoming) EXPO Chicago, Kristin Hjellegjerde Gallery, Chicago, IL (2024); Home sweet Home, Girls’s Club, Fort Lauderdale, Florida, USA (2023); Art Brussel, Brussel, Belgium (2023); Duality: The Real and the Perceived, Monya Rowe Gallery, New York, USA (2023); Enter Art Fair, Kristin Hjellegjerde Gallery, Copenhagen, Denmark (2023); Sins of the Fathers, cur. Nat Meade, Taymour Grahne Projects (online), London, UK (2023); Come a Little Closer, DC Moore Gallery, New York, USA (2023); Uprising, Kristin Hjellegjerde Gallery, Schloss Görne, Germany (2022); The Bathroom Show, Monya Rowe, New York, USA (2022); Intimacy, Taymour Grahne Projects, London, UK (2022); In Momentum, Kristin Hjellegjerde Gallery, London, UK (2021); Outside Touch, Monya Rowe Gallery, New York (2020); Sit Still: Portraits in the Age of Distraction, Anna Zorina Gallery, New York, USA (2020); Poeticising Leisure, Althuis Hofland Fine Arts, Amsterdam (2020); Rewind Fast-forward: Temporal Art Paradox, Winston Wachter (online), New York, USA (2020); Xenia: Crossroads in Portrait Painting, Marianna Boesky Gallery, New York (2020), Polina Barskaya & Anthony Cudahy: Interior, Monya Rowe Gallery, New York (2019); The Salon, The Wing Soho, New York (2018); Dynamic Intimacy, Kean University, Union (2018); Between The Walls, Tilou Fine Art, Brooklyn (2018); Into View, Sweet Lorraine Gallery, Brooklyn (2018); Untitled Art Fair, Pratt Institute, Miami (2018).