In Memory of Daria Alyoshkina

Photo of Daria Alyoshkina via Instagram (@daria.alyoshkina).

Daria Alyoshkina was born on March 5, 1982, in Kyiv, into a family of sculptors, and spent her formative years in the village of Bukatinka in the Vinnytsia region. She earned a Master's degree in monumental and decorative sculpture from the Lviv National Academy of Arts in 2007. Representing Ukraine internationally from 2010 onward, her papercuts appeared at the Livre Paris book fair, and in 2018 Cartier commissioned her to decorate its Paris boutique. She later represented Ukraine's history, from the Scythians to the present day, at the Venice Architecture Biennale. Her work reached audiences in 23 countries and was featured in Vogue Ukraine, including a 2021 exhibition of 30 Vogue UA covers by Ukrainian artists at Kyiv's M17 Contemporary Art Center. Daria passed away suddenly in Lviv on August 15, 2026, at the age of 44, leaving behind her husband, musician Hordii Starukh, and their three children.

“Милосердя / Mercy” by Daria Alyoshkina courtesy of SVI Art Colleciton; Daria Alyoshkina at the BLOCK festival in 2023.

Daria worked in the tradition of vytynanky, Ukrainian papercuts made from a single sheet of one colour, folded in half and cut by hand with scissors or knives, sometimes even torn, then unfolded to reveal a symmetrical design. She worked within this traditional technique but pushed it into new territory, exploring different materials and scaling her pieces to monumental size, with many spanning over ten feet in height, each sketched in pencil on a folded sheet and cut entirely by hand. Her work centred on women, nature, and symbolism, populated by birds, animals, and blooming trees. Others turned their attention to painful chapters of Ukrainian history, including a Holodomor project developed with a museum in Kyiv, and artwork such as Freedom as a response to the current war.

She worked mostly in white, and once a piece was hung, it took on a lace-like quality. The shadows cast when light shines through animate the piece, letting it interact with and change the space around it, and at that scale, the effect is extraordinary. She also developed a style entirely her own, especially in the women she depicted in her vytynanky, figures with a presence and iconography instantly recognizable as hers.

Daria Alyoshkina’s work at Motherland, Scavolini Toronto, 2025.

St. Volodymyr Institute (SVI) was fortunate to work with Daria, first helping bring her work to Toronto for the BLOK Festival at The Bentway in 2023, marking her debut exhibition in Canada. This was followed by a solo exhibition of twelve of her eleven-foot-tall works in the SVI theatre, alongside custom works she created for our Art Gallery. Through the support of the Ukrainian community, SVI was able to acquire three of her larger artworks (Mercy, Freedom, and Spikelets), along with several of her smaller vytynanky, which are now part of our permanent collection. These pieces were exhibited last year as part of DesignTO's programming in the group exhibition Motherland, held at the Scavolini Toronto Showroom.

Photo of Daria Alyoshkina via Instagram (@daria.vytynanka)

Beyond her own practice, Daria was an advocate for this craft. She created smaller-format works sized for people's homes and taught vytynanky throughout Europe, leaving behind a wealth of videos and publications documenting her practice. She collaborated widely with fellow artists, design studios, and cultural institutions on projects built around vytynanky, and her influence can be seen in a growing generation of artists now working in this form. This, too, is part of her legacy.

Daria was more than an artist whose work we were honoured to feature: she represented what it means to carry a tradition forward and be recognized in the contemporary art world. She leaves an irreplaceable gap, but also an extraordinary body of work and a generation of international admirers who will know more about Ukrainian art, craft, and design, as well as the traditional techniques of vytynanky. Our thoughts are with her husband, Hordii, their three children, and their family and friends. 

Вічна пам'ять. Vichna pamyat. May her memory be eternal.