White butterfly, 2025
My paintings are visual narratives where reality and imagination intertwine, exploring the complex relationship between self-identity and the natural world. Through bioluminescent forms and surreal environments, I reflect on emotional resilience and personal transformation.
Katia Lifshin
Born in 1993 in Kherson, Ukraine, Katia Lifshin relocated to Israel at age four, where she spent her formative years before moving to the United States in 2012 to study painting and sculpture at Pima College in Tucson, Arizona. The distinctive southwestern landscapes, especially the nocturnal moods of Sabino Canyon, played a pivotal role in developing her signature blue and green color palette and atmospheric approach to painting.
Lifshin’s work presents surreal environments inhabited by young women who navigate dreamlike landscapes infused with unusual natural phenomena such as bioluminescence and organic spiral forms. These motifs serve as metaphors for themes of identity, personal metamorphosis, and emotional resilience. Drawing inspiration from archival photography and direct observation, her layered compositions blur the boundaries between human experience and the external world.
Now based in Holon, Israel, Katia Lifshin continues to push the boundaries of surrealist painting, creating immersive atmospheres that reflect the complex emotional and psychological journeys of self-discovery and transformation.