Polina Barskaya

Monica De Cardenas presents the first solo exhibition in Italy by Polina Barskaya, held in the Project Room of the gallery in Milan.

Barskaya paints intimate, small-scale portraits of domestic life, working in acrylic on panel from photographs she takes of herself, her husband Alexander and their daughter Maya. Born in Ukraine, raised in Brooklyn and now based in Piedmont, Barskaya translates everyday interiors—unmade beds, morning light through curtains, a child’s posture on a sofa—into psychologically charged compositions recalling the intimist tradition of Vuillard and the uncompromising self-examination of Alice Neel.

Her practice enters into dialogue with European intimism and with a figurative painting attentive to the introspective dimension of portraiture. Measured and quiet, her compositions invite viewers to approach closely, establishing a direct relationship with the gaze of the subjects—frank, sometimes questioning, seeking presence rather than complacency.

The works depict domestic interiors captured in suspended moments: seated or reclining figures, interrupted gestures, bodies occupying space without theatricality. The artist, her husband and daughter inhabit everyday interiors filtered by window light, where the ordinary acquires a subtle psychological tension.

For the Project Room, Barskaya presents a group of recent works exploring the relationship between painting and photography as a process of translation—from captured image to constructed image, from private memory to public form.