Biography
Biography
Anastasia Prokusheva (b. 1995, Ulyanovsk, Russia) is a painter currently based in Belgrade, Serbia.
Working primarily in oil and charcoal, she is best known for her self-portraits, portraits, and intimate scenes that explore vulnerability, honesty, shifting emotional states, and the inner perception of the surrounding world. Her paintings are characterized by expressive brushwork, layered underpainting, and a nuanced approach to color, where contrasting hues are made to vibrate and resonate against one another.
Prokusheva’s work reflects themes of psychological and emotional truth. Her self-portraits function as a visual diary, tracing the evolution of thought and states of spirit, while her landscapes echo her inner world and her genre scenes reveal moments of raw intimacy. Her works from 2024–2025 are particularly concerned with the recovery of the psyche after imprisonment and emigration, the acceptance of a shifting reality, and the courage to remain true to oneself. She studied at the St. Petersburg Academy of Arts (Repin Institute). Following her participation in anti-war protests, she emigrated from Russia and has continued her artistic practice in Serbia. Her work has been shown in exhibitions in Russia and abroad, and she is currently developing new projects that further expand her exploration of portraiture, psychological intimacy, and the depth that can be hidden within life’s mundane (and sometimes even unsettling) moments.