is a multidisciplinary artist and ceramicist working in the field of mixed media. Her practice is deeply shaped by the personal experience of migration and the reconfiguration of identity within the context of displacement and shifting realities.
Her artistic thinking developed at the intersection of academic architectural training and formal education in applied arts. The core of her practice centers on clay and fired ceramics, which she approaches not merely as a craft medium but as a meditative and conceptual process. In her works, she combines a wide range of materials and techniques—including pure pigments, found objects, reclaimed and recycled materials—to create layered, symbolically charged compositions.
Clay, traditionally associated with archetypal feminine energy, has been her chosen medium since 2008. In Tory’s interpretation, it serves as a universal vessel of cultural, historical, and corporeal memory. The material becomes simultaneously a metaphor for ancestral dust and a symbolic embodiment of the Earth, sustaining a tension between the sacred and the mundane.
Anastasia Tory
A significant aspect of her practice lies in the use of bodily impressions—casts of her own face and hands—that she incorporates into sculptural forms. These auto-plastic imprints, deformed in the firing process, transcend self-portraiture and evolve into collective ancestral representations—evoking maternal, grandmaternal, and matrilineal presence.
Set against a backdrop of contemporary instability and armed conflict—realities that have had a direct impact on the artist’s own life—her work becomes a poignant call to reconnect with origins, both physical and spiritual. Through imagery evoking liminal, dreamlike states, she explores dichotomies of body and spirit, memory and reality, light and darkness—uncovering the complexity of collective and individual experience deeply rooted in nature and community.
Prior to emigrating from Ukraine, Tory was a member of the National Union of Artists and took part in numerous national exhibitions. In 2022, she spent seven months in Germany as a refugee, where she created a powerful series of expressive, somber works in response to personal grief and loss. These pieces were produced using donated clay and found materials gathered from the streets of Berlin. The resulting body of work formed the basis of her solo exhibition Every day: Born–Die–Born–Die–Born at Vorona Gallery in Berlin, with the standout piece Smoke featured on the exhibition’s cover.
Following her relocation to the United Kingdom, her practice has further evolved to embrace motifs of sacred geometry, feminine ritual, and corporeal mythology. Notable examples of this new phase include the projects Universum and The Primordial Coil, and Her Echoes. The culmination of two and a half years of work in the UK was marked by her 2025 retrospective exhibition Dreamlands: Creating Structure out of Chaos at The Schwartzman Gallery in Margate.
Recent activities and exhibitions:
2025
16.05.2025 - 28.06.2025
Exhibition “FarbRaum BLAU” - Vorona Gallery, Berlin, Germany
07.02.2025 - 05.04.2025
Solo Exhibition: “Dreamlands: Creating Structure Out of Chaos” - TMS Gallery (Schwartzman Gallery), Margate, UK
24.01.2025 - 26.01.2025
Exhibition “Gordon House: A Last Hurrah” – Gordon House (Closing Exhibition), Margate, UK
18.01.2025 - 01.02.2025
Exhibition “Kunst Trifft Raum” - Vorona Gallery, Berlin, Germany
30.11.2024 - 02.01.2025
Exhibition “Superstore II” (Participant and Curator) - Salon Gallery, Margate, UK
2024
06.06.2024 - 17.06.2024
Exhibition “Watch us Rise” - Salon Gallery, Margate, UK
06.05.2024 - 03.06.2024
Exhibition “TMS Studio Holders Showcase” - The Margate School, Margate, UK
01.03.2024 - 30.03.2024
Exhibition “Sanctuary” (Participant and Curator) - Salon Gallery, Margate, UK
16.02.2024 - 20.02.2024
Exhibition "Unfinished Art Show 2" - Pie Factory Gallery, Margate, UK
10.02.2024 - 23.03.2024
Solo Exhibition "Focus" - Vorona Gallery, Berlin, Germany
12.01.2024 - 03.02.2024
Exhibition “SichtbarSEIN” - Vorona Gallery, Berlin, Germany
01.12.2023 - 01.02.2024
Exhibition “Superstore” (Participant and Curator) - Salon Gallery, Margate, UK
2023
13.11.2023 - 19.11.2023
Exhibition “Of Land and Sea” - Whitstable Museum Gallery, Whitstable, UK
26.10.2023 - Present
Artist in Residence and Co-Curator - Salon Gallery, Margate, UK
27.07.2023 - 23.09.2023
Solo Exhibition “Glimmer” - Salon Gallery (Launch Exhibition), Margate, UK
24.07.2023 - 30.07.2023
Exhibition “Of Land and Sea” - Whitstable Museum Gallery, Whitstable, UK
16.06.2023 - 10.07.2023
Solo Exhibition “There’s Got to Be Some Light” - ARK (Cliftonville Cultural Space - REFUGEE WEEK 2023), Margate, UK
05.04.2023 - 13.04.2023
Exhibition - The Margate School Gallery Space, Margate UK
31.03.2023 - 13.05.2023
Exhibition "Die Welt ist Frau" - Vorona gallery, Berlin, Germany
02.03.2023 - 29.04.2023
Exhibition "Unity" - Whitstable Museum, Whitstable, UK
23.02.2023 - 27.02.2023
Exhibition "Unfinished art show" - Pie Factory Gallery, Margate, UK
2022
16.11.2022 - 22.11.2022
Exhibition "Over land and sea" - Fishslab gallery, Whitstable, UK
10.09.2022
Exhibition - Museum Berlin-Reinickendorf, Berlin, Germany
03.09.2022 - 04.09.2022
Exhibition during Open Studios at art residency Kunstlerhof Frohnau, Berlin, Germany
28.07.2022 - 30.07.2022
Exhibition "In Between Fires" - Hotel Continental: Art Space In Exile, Berlin, Germany
12.07.2022 - 27.08.2022
Solo Exhibition "Every day: Born-Die-Born-Die-Born" - Vorona Gallery, Berlin, Germany
18.07.2022 - 29.07.2022
Exhibition "Threads in Motion" - Haus Der Statistics, Alexander platz, Berlin, Germany
19.05.2022 - 28.06.2022
Exhibition "Art Movement Ukraine" - Ferrara, Italy; Vienna, Stockerau, Austria
11.05.2022 - present
Member of art project - “Studio Ukraine” - Berlin, Germany