Bio: Anastasiia Hrobova is a Ukrainian-born artist currently based in the United States. Working mostly in painting and mixed media, she explores memory, grief, and the emotional weight of ordinary things. Her work often begins with a quiet feeling or image that won’t leave her alone—something small that asks to be noticed. She creates slowly and intuitively, allowing each piece to unfold rather than forcing it toward a fixed idea. Much of Anastasiia’s perspective has been shaped by personal experiences of war, migration, and the process of learning to live between places. Painting became a way to process what didn’t fit into language, and over time, it turned into a space where she could hold both the beautiful and the painful without needing to resolve either. Her work often blends elements of abstraction and symbolism, using texture, contrast, and softness to invite reflection. Rather than offering clear answers, her pieces try to hold space—for pause, for presence, for feeling something
Statement: “Mom, I Lost My Shoe” explores the collision of innocence and war. A little boy is lifted into the sky by missiles, his one remaining shoe a fragile reminder of an ordinary moment. He doesn’t understand what’s happening—only that he’s lost something familiar. The title echoes how a child, even in catastrophe, out of innocence, tends to focus on the smallest detail. Inspired by stories of children caught in war, the piece reflects how violence steals childhood in the armor of casualty. The gold leaf highlights the tension between peace and destruction, innocence and absence, honoring all lives forever changed by war.
“Inspired by stories of children caught in war, the piece reflects how violence steals childhood in the armor of casualty”
