Anya is a 23 y.o. mixed media artist based in Rhode Island. Her work generally revolves around depicting the tension-laden, gendered realities of life– reflecting her B.A in both Studio Art and Gender & Women's Studies from the University of Rhode Island. Deeply rooted in the desire to practice "Artivism" (art-activism), she won a 2023-24 grant from URI to showcase a collection of artworks (and year-long research findings) that tackled the many reasons women & AFAB individuals avoid healthcare. This was represented in her solo-exhibition "Betrayed Bodies: The Price of Care" through March 2025. A painting from this series, "N0 M0R3 TIM3" was then showcased in Art League RI's "Truth Unveiled" juried exhibition from October-December 2025. A sculpture from the series titled "Uterus" has also been chosen to be exhibited at the Waterfire Arts Center through July-August 2026 for their exhibition "America Unfinished?!"
Anya was the juror's choice winner of URI's 2022 student exhibition, and was selected to show her piece "Three Sisters in Pascoag" in Public PVD's juried show "POV" through Nov.-Dec. 2025.
Anya is currently the gallery coordinator of New England’s Candita Clayton Galleries.
Statement
I am an artist driven by capturing moments, scenes, and dialogue that make me pause, and think there could be something beyond my perception there.
I am currently enraptured by nocturnes, monsters, and the surreal. There is a pleasure to be had from amassing forms from darkness and then revealing your perspective from within it. Because my artwork's meanings are heavily affected by my emotional state, my work often deals with dissecting what it means to be a young woman in the 21st century. Especially what tension feels like in a gendered reality.
I work primarily with mixed media to build layered surfaces and make images that feel closer to how I see life. Acrylic and colored pencil is my preferred combination; as you can better represent subtle textures and color shifts. This helps me create the ghostly auras in my paintings and define sharper forms.
Feminist frameworks and research methodologies guide my grant-supported projects, particularly in works that engage with the female body and psyche under medical and social pressure. Using surrealist strategies, I visually explore experiences of discomfort, shame, rage, and isolation in AFAB individuals that are otherwise kept private. Rather than solely illustrating their conditions, I aim to create spaces of empathy that resist simplification of other’s choices (or lack of choices). Each work is made with the surveyed person(s) in mind rather than only my biases or experiences.