10 Questions with Eugenia Polyakova
Eugenia Polyakova - Portrait
Eugenia Polyakova is an emerging multidisciplinary artist based in the UAE, where she has been part of the creative landscape for over 12 years. Her practice is shaped by a background in marketing and continued studies in art history, giving her a dual perspective on how images are constructed, communicated, and emotionally received.
Alongside her artistic development, she has worked within the creative and media production industry, co-founding and running a large-scale production agency that deepened her understanding of visual storytelling in a contemporary digital context. Cultivating a large, highly engaged following on her personal accounts, she uses the digital space not just for broadcasting, but as a living laboratory to observe how modern audiences interact with visual narratives in real time. This professional experience informs her artistic language, which moves between intuitive expression and the structured logic of visual communication. She works in mixed media, combining acrylic painting with sculptural elements to create layered, tactile compositions.
Her work explores symbols, memory, and emotional perception, focusing on how meaning is formed through fragments of personal and collective experience. Drawing from both analogue sensibility and digital culture, she creates works that reflect the tension between modern communication and inner, often silent, emotional states.
GOLDEN-HOUR, acrylic, 120x80 © Eugenia Polyakova
INTERVIEW
Could you tell us about your journey into art and what first inspired you to become an artist?
My family played a massive role in shaping this passion. We were surrounded by art books, which completely captivated me as a child. In fact, instead of typical children's illustrations, my mother would put prints of ancient Japanese paintings in my crib. My father deeply admired Picasso, surrealism, and avant-garde writers. Growing up in an environment that truly appreciated art laid the foundation for my entire artistic journey.
You have a background in marketing and have studied art history. How have these experiences influenced your artistic practice?
When it was time to choose a university, my parents encouraged me to study marketing and advertising rather than pursuing a purely academic art degree, and I am incredibly grateful they did. Marketing is all about understanding human behavior and shaping perception, which is invaluable.
However, because my passion for art never left, I continuously attended art history classes alongside my degree. Both disciplines ended up complementing each other beautifully, allowing me to view visual communication through a unique lens.
Missing Piece, acrylic, 80x60 cm, 2026 © Eugenia Polyakova
Having worked in the creative and media production industry for many years, what lessons from that field have stayed with you as an artist?
My path actually started on the other side of the camera, working as a fashion influencer and partnering with some of the biggest luxury brands in the world. Being immersed in that high-end world naturally led me to run my own media production, which I’ve been doing for nearly 17 years now.
Working with luxury houses and running a production taught me so much about visual psychology and what makes people feel a connection to an image. It made me a much more disciplined artist. I don't sit around waiting for inspiration anymore and just show up, start creating, and use everything I've learned about modern culture and storytelling to make something that speaks to people.
Your work combines painting with sculptural elements. What attracts you to this mixed-media approach?
I have always had a deep passion to make things, to create something that has never been there before. Mixing different mediums feels like a natural evolution of that experimentation, and it allows me to bring those two worlds of painting and sculpture together to build something completely new.
Symbols, memory, and emotional perception are central themes in your work. What initially drew you to exploring these ideas?
It really started back when I was a teenager. I was reading a lot of heavy, thought-provoking books, everything from Nietzsche’s philosophy to Orwell’s 1984 and old Soviet sci-fi. Those ideas about control, the human mind, and how we perceive reality stayed with me and still affect how I view the world today.
Especially now, with everything happening in the world, things can feel incredibly heavy. Art helps me put things onto the canvas that I just can't speak about openly, using symbols and memory to express those deeper, unsaid emotions.
Eternal Ritual, acrylic, 120x80 cm, 2026 © Eugenia Polyakova
Redacted Memory, acrylic, 120x80 cm, 2025 © Eugenia Polyakova
You often reflect on the relationship between digital culture and personal experience. How does this influence the works you create today?
My time as an influencer gave me a front-row seat to how digital culture works, but my personal life is where the real emotion is. In my art, I like to mix those two worlds. I take that fast-paced, digital aesthetic but give it texture, layers, and physical depth through painting and sculpture.
Social media has become an important part of contemporary visual culture. How has your experience engaging with online audiences shaped your understanding of visual storytelling?
If there’s one thing social media teaches you, it’s that you only have a split second to make someone feel something before they keep scrolling. Engaging with an online audience for so many years taught me that visual storytelling isn’t about being overly complicated - it’s about instant, emotional impact.
Your works often feel layered both physically and conceptually. Can you tell us a bit about your creative process?
My process is actually very intuitive. I always start with a completely empty canvas - there are no sketches, no pre-planned ideas, and no rules. It all comes from whatever raw emotions I’m feeling right in that exact moment.
Because of that, the initial stages are very raw, imperfect, and completely imprecise. The physical layers build up alongside my emotions while I'm working. For me, the canvas is the one place where I don't have to curate an image or worry about perfection. In my art, I can just completely be myself.
ZERO HOUR, mixed media, 72x65 cm, 2024 © Eugenia Polyakova
Many of your pieces explore the tension between external communication and inner emotional states. Why is this theme particularly important to you?
Living in that gap between who you are to the world and who you are when you're alone is something I think a lot of people experience today. That’s why it’s so important to me. Art is the only place where I can let those two worlds meet up. The polished external communication becomes the structure or the visual hook of the piece, but the raw paint, heavy textures, and imperfections represent the inner emotional state.
Lastly, what are you currently working on, and are there any upcoming exhibitions, collaborations, or projects that you can share with us?
I’m incredibly grateful to have been approached by some amazing curators about showcasing my work in some really important exhibitions. I have a few very exciting projects in 2026, but I’m a bit superstitious, and I don't like to talk about things before they are fully done.
Artist’s Talk
Al-Tiba9 Interviews is a promotional platform for artists to articulate their vision and engage them with our diverse readership through a published art dialogue. The artists are interviewed by Mr. Mohamed Benhadj, the founder & curator of Al-Tiba9 Contemporary, to highlight their artistic careers and introduce them to the international contemporary art scene across our vast network of museums, galleries, art professionals, art dealers, collectors, and art lovers across the globe.
