Iryna Fedorenko SEMIRA

Semira is a pseudonym of the artist Iryna Fedorenko.

Iryna became famous thanks to her extraordinary portraits. These are of people's souls and characters, emotions and moods, the picture looks at the viewer with a lively deep look, although the general features of the face are made with careless strokes and conveys only a conditional resemblance. The secret of the artist's ability to convey a deep psychological portrait in her own easy and relaxed manner, characters from Iryna's works are created for dialog with the viewer, in them she reflects her vision of the world, the emotions of different people and one person at different times, and at the same time she gives the viewer the opportunity to decide for themselves what these works are about.

Iryna was born in 1983 in Mariupol, Ukraine. She began to be interested in painting and drawing in high school. The first hero of her works was actor Johnny Depp, it was his various images from different movies with new and new characters that was interesting to convey to the artist: the same face, but different characters and emotions of a person, beautiful deep look. Already later it was portraits of other people. By the time she started studying at the university, there were already so many paintings that Iryna's first exhibition took place in 2001 in the museum of the university, where she received her first economic education.

In 2015, after shelling Mariupol from GRAD and abandoning the house, Iryna and her family moved to Kyiv. 

For many years, art in Iryna's life was only a hobby. She taught economics at the university, studied in graduate school, wrote a thesis, later worked as a top manager in the largest Ukrainian bank, was the head of several companies, was involved in politics and social activities and only after years realized what she really wanted to do in life. "Art has always been in me, permeating all my time, some choices in our lives we make under the influence of external circumstances, the main choices are always already made and they are inside.“

Iryna studied painting, culture and art in the National Academy of Management of Culture and Art of Ukraine, had internship at The Andy Warhol Museum of Modern Art and at the Museum of Ukrainian Art in Slovakia, had internship at The Italian Ca'Foscari University of Venice, had internship and participated in conferences in Boston (USA), Oxford and Cambridge (England).

In March 2022, Iryna fled the war from Ukraine to Germany, and now lives with her mother and son in Munich. The events in her homeland significantly affected her work and social role as an artist: having lost her home, relatives and loved ones, Iryna decided to tell the world about the war through her work, so she created a large series of children's portraits "Children of War". "Often art is stronger than ordinary words, my motto is #ArtForPeace".
Iryna takes an active part in charity and public activities, has been dealing with copyright issues in Ukraine for many years, is also involved in promoting Ukrainian art and is the organizer of the International Festival of Contemporary Art "Trace".
Her paintings are presented in the collections of several museums and in the private collections of the Andy Warhol family, director of the Andy Warhol Museum and Johnny Depp.
Iryna has received several awards for her contribution to the development of culture and art in Ukraine and as the best artist.
Since 2022 Iryna became a member of Berufsverband Bildender Künstlerinnen und Künstler München und Oberbayern e.V.