Darka Shpykuliak

Born in 1995 in the city of Kremenchuk, Poltava region. Her path toward collage was shaped by literature, theatre, and translation. She earned a master’s degree in Germanic languages and translation from Kremenchuk Mykhailo Ostrohradskyi National University. She currently lives in Lviv and works remotely as an over-the-phone and video medical interpreter for Canada and the United States.

Working with language and people became a significant impulse toward a broader creative path. At the same time, collage had always attracted her from an early age — through its boldness, courage, and freedom. Art was always present around her: her older sister, artist Zhanna Kondratenko, had been drawing since childhood. Perhaps this is why art long seemed to Darka like something close, yet at the same time unattainable.

While studying to become a translator, Darka continued searching for her own creative form: she taught herself to draw, and after university tried her hand at improvisational theatre, yet still felt an acute creative lack.

In 2025, after discovering Adriana Bermúdez’s book The ABC of Collage, she created her first work, Expectation — and felt that she had found a medium she had long been unconsciously searching for. Later, she came across Annet Segal on Instagram, who had released her first original collage course, Dialogues. During the classes, Darka became even more convinced that collage was her inner home. In 2025, she became one of the winners of the Open Call CUTOUT COLLAGE FESTIVAL 2025, and later a resident artist of the CUTOUT COLLAGE ART PROJECT. Her works have been presented in a number of exhibition projects in Ukraine, including in Kyiv, Zaporizhzhia, and Lviv.