Artist’s Biography

Yana Verba is a Ukrainian-Canadian painter who was born in Ukraine in 1983 and immigrated to Canada in 1999. Verba studied at the School of Visual Arts in New York and received a BFA from OCAD University in Toronto in 2015. She grounds her art practice in a language of abstraction, using rhythmic patterns, colors, and movement. Inspired by Modernists of the early twentieth century, Verba is currently working on a series of paintings that echo Soviet monumental art and Soviet Ukrainian mosaics. Her work has been shown in Canada, the United States, and the Middle East, and she has lived and worked in California since 2015. 

Exhibition Statement

On February 24, 2022 Russia began a full-scale invasion of Ukraine as a continuation of the war that started in 2014. This war already displaced millions of people and took thousands of lives. It has been more than a half a year since the full invasion, and the Ukrainian people continue to volunteer, collaborate, stand strong and defend their land. This exhibition, Ukrainian Song, serves as an attempt to share a little piece of Ukraine with the community of the East Bay, hopefully remind people that the war is not over yet, and ask people not to get used to this war and to stand with Ukraine. Verba has been working on this body of work since 2019. It is a dialogue through the history of Ukrainian monumental Art of the 20th century. The work echoes the Ukrainian Mosaics that are located throughout Ukrainian landscapes and could be found in almost every city. These mosaics are slowly disappearing under the cities’ ruins and under the Russian bombs. 

Please DM for inquiry at www.yanaverba.com  All proceeds are going to  Humanitarian Aid for Ukraine. 

Freedom of Abstraction

David Lew says, of his work, “Painting is a lyrical process in which I rarely preconceive its outcome. I often avoid an overly controlled static image by allowing the colors to flow and clash until my intention is realized. The textures and colors formed by the exposed strata of paint pigments create a visual connection of movements throughout the picture plane that I hope invites viewers to participate in this process and to enjoy the freedom.” 

Lew studied traditional art in Shanghai at the end of the so-called Cultural Revolution in China, a turbulent time in which all arts considered a symbol of “bourgeois decadence” were denounced and artists purged, except for those serving the “proletarian” propaganda. After the turmoil, he moved to British Hong Kong where he attended art school at Hong Kong University and continued his work in freedom until he moved to Germany, before settling in the Bay Area. His art has been exhibited in galleries around California. 

Recent exhibitions: 
2022 Bedford Gallery, Walnut Creek
2021 Jennifer & Philip DiNapoli Gallery, San Jose 2018 Danville Gallery, Danville
2018 Lindsay Dirks Brown Art Gallery, San Ramon
2018 Peninsula Museum of Art, San Mateo
2017 San Jose State University, San Jose

If you are interested in a painting or have questions, please send an email to: 11DavidLew@gmail.com