Dzina Liaonava

Dzina Liaonava, also known as Dinka, 1988, Vladivostok, USSR) is a Belarusian artist living and working in Warsaw, Poland. She graduated with a Master’s degree in Architecture in Minsk in 2012. Her first artistic recognition came in 2017, when her work was included in the group exhibition Come Back Home at the Institute of Russian Realist Art in Moscow. Following the exhibition, her work was acquired for the museum’s collection.Since then, she has consistently pursued watercolor painting, developing her practice. In 2022, Dzina moved to Ukraine and subsequently evacuated to Poland.In 2024, Dinka joined HOS Gallery in Warsaw, which presented her first solo exhibition Between Layers in January 2025. The same year, she was awarded the prestigious Chevening Scholarship and completed an MA in Painting at the Royal College of Art in London. She participated in the Warsaw edition of the NADA Art Fair, and was selected for the LOOSTRO 2025 Prize Exhibition.Drawing on family archive as an entry point, her research concentrates on what painting sourced from a photograph does. She primarily works with watercolors on unprimed canvas or simple paper, often preparing her own paints by mixing dry pigments with Gum Arabic.