BIOGRAPHY

Ulyana Okava is a contemporary artist based in Dubai, originally from Kazakhstan. She has been painting for over 12 years, working primarily in large-scale acrylic on canvas.
She studied at the Zhurgenov Kazakh National Academy of Art in Almaty, followed by the Tansikbayev College of Arts and Crafts, where she trained in easel painting and later specialized in artistic metalwork and jewelry design.

From 2015, she collaborated with interior designers in Almaty, creating custom and reproduction paintings for private interiors, and painted a full collection for Almaty fashion brand OBLAKA.
In 2016, she took part in her first group exhibition, “Segment,” a multicultural art and urban culture festival at ARTHAUS in Almaty, and co-organized ČVET Art Project, an exhibition supporting young Kazakh artists, in which her own work was also shown.

Between 2018 and 2026, Ulyana continued to paint in parallel — taking commissions and developing her own work — while traveling extensively and building her main practice in healing and mindfulness work. In 2019, during this period, she sold her paintings from a gallery on Istanbul’s Çukurcuma Street, reaching collectors from around the world.

In 2024, she relocated to Dubai, and in 2026 she committed to painting as her full-time practice, developing her current focus on sacred geometry. Her work has been shown in three group exhibitions and performed as live painting at Upaya Festival, and she has organized and taught six painting workshops in Almaty and Dubai. Her paintings are held in private collections in Kazakhstan, Georgia, Türkiye, India, the UAE, and Europe.