artist bio

​Tatyana Grechina is a Russian-American painter and writer working with collective memory and personal lineage as pathways toward ancestral healing. Her work uses color to explore memory, emotion and storytelling while creating a window of escape into a dreamlike place. From figurative paintings and portraits to abstract color fields and small-scale collages, her practice is guided by a desire to add joy into the world and create spaces of comfort and imagination for those navigating hardship.

In 2011, Tatyana was the recipient of the Creative Arts and Research Grant from Temple University, which she used to create a multidisciplinary installation and performance piece called “Activators of Space.” Her artwork can be seen in public and private collections including in New York City, Philadelphia, Chicago and San Francisco. Tatyana’s work has also been exhibited in Vienna and has found homes in Kyiv, Ukraine, St. Petersburg, Russia and Barcelona, Spain. She currently has work on loan at the Loveland (CO) Public Library through The Art Advocacy Project and permanent works installed in Bon Secours St. Francis in Greenville, SC. Tatyana received a BFA in Painting and Drawing from Tyler School of Art in Philadelphia, PA.

inspiration

Through vibrant palettes, dynamic forms and expressive mark-making, my paintings and portraits delve into nostalgia, emotion, and self-reflection, challenging the boundary between private identity and public persona. Seeing the world as a stage and every being a character, I become the scribe, capturing the unfolding narrative that surrounds us. My method of using shapes and colors to build up imagery mirrors the way memories accumulate and recede, sometimes sharp with clarity, sometimes dissolving into abstraction.

With roots in storytelling as both an artist and a writer, my aim is not to elevate my subjects above others. Instead, I portray them as threads in our living history through kinesthetic, immersive work. My large-scale paintings and murals become spaces for complete immersion and shared energy. By mixing movement, energy, and paint, I create visual portals for connection, inviting the outside world in. Capturing my subjects in paint feels like the ultimate act of devotion, somehow acknowledging the universal longing to be seen and understood.

materials + process

Working with both external spaces and internal worlds, Tatyana explores place and emotion through her figural and landscape works. This takes form in oil on canvas paintings, pen-and-ink drawings and hand-cut collages.

As Tatyana’s work explores shared themes from our human experience, collaboration has also become a large part of her pratice. She frequently works with fellow creatives like photographers, stylists and models to bring to life scenes which she turns into hand-cut collages and paintings.

Tatyana dreams of building a world that can not only sustain itself and future generations with regenerative creativity, but brings as many people as it can into the process!