

Branches to the Open Sky (Double-Sided Work, Second Side)
2022, Drawing, Wood, Graphite pencil , Contemporary
using technology, and exists as a unique exemplar.
Each Digital Original is verified and secured through blockchain technology, providing full rights to exclusive digital ownership.
This artwork is not available for sale at the moment, but you can submit a request to purchase it.
"Branches to the Open Sky" is part of the series "A Tree of Great Height That Stands Amid the Land" (2022).
The series began to take shape in Ukraine in the spring of 2022, during the peak of the most harrowing events of the full-scale invasion. The silhouettes of broken trees scattered throughout the city constantly evoked wounds and remnants of the human body. Yet, as spring intervened, it initiated a process of renewal—some of those shattered trees, with their mangled branches, began to sprout young shoots and leaves. This sight instilled a sense of hope that we, too, could eventually be reborn. That hope helped us endure the pain of the world's fragility and cope with both personal and collective tragedy.
"Wounds bleed on the branches of a great tree—inflicted either by bullets or by nails that pierce through its flesh. These wounds ache, inflame, and heal, this unending cycle repeats itself over and over again. Wounds are suffering trapped in an endless loop of horror and hope, circling within the impossibility of fully grasping a twisted reality. At times, you grow accustomed to the pain, and it seems as though the wounds are healing — but then, once again, you feel the ache in your body."
*This text was written for the tour of the solo-duo exhibition "Breach. Episode I" at Imagine Point, Kyiv, 2023. The next part of the exhibition, "Breach. Episode II," took place immediately after the first one at the M17 Contemporary Art Center, Kyiv, 2023.
- Format Digital Original Standard
- Resolution 400 MPX
- Color depth
48 bit
281 Trillion Colors
Original file size
1453 MB DNG File
- Country Ukraine
- Years 2022
- Styles
- Medium
- Physical canvas 15cm x 20cm
- Framing No framed

Polina Shcherbyna is a Ukrainian artist whose primary medium is painting. Whether through monochrome images on linen canvas or pyrography and carving on wood, her practice always connects back to painting and its foundational principles. The central theme of Polina Shcherbyna's art, serving as the core from which other subthemes branch out, is corporeality.
Summary of Polina Shcherbyna
The artist engages with the expanded concept and perception of painting, presenting it as an object that reflects on iconography and the aesthetics of the temple. The artwork of Polina Shcherbyna is interpreted by the artist as a double view of the world of the fall of the Anthropocene idea.
Biography of Polina Shcherbyna
The artist was born in Kyiv, Ukraine, in 1993. She studied in department of monumental painting and temple culture named after Mykola Storozhenko at NAFAA, earning a Master of Fine Arts degree.
Polina Shcherbyna's paintings have been featured in numerous solo and group exhibitions. Her solo shows have been held at Gallery DIM in Warsaw, M17 Contemporary Art Centre in Kyiv, Idealfruhstuck in Paris, and Šopa Gallery in Kosice, among other renowned venues. Moreover, she participated in group shows, such as "Materia metters" at Ukrainskyi Dim in Kyiv (2024), "Traces of timelessness" at Künstlerhaus Sootböern in Hamburg, "BRÜCHE" at HAUS KUNST MITTE in Berlin (2024), and many more.
Currently, the artist lives and works in Leipzig and Berlin.
Polina Shcherbyna's Famous Works: Exploring the Artist's Journey
Polina Shcherbyna's original paintings include "Is the Wound Healing or Growing?" (2023), "ONE LESS TREE IN PARADISE" (2022-2023), "The Winter Landscape Has Changed To — The Landscape Of Emptiness" (2023), and "Battallia of Modernity" (2023), among others.
Additionally, the artist has created numerous firing paintings and drawings on wood, and installations. These include "Branches of Great Tree (Double-Sided Work)" (2022), "The time when stones will be gather" (2023), "Overcoming the Black Spot" (2022), "Against the Darkness" (2022), and many more. Polina Shcherbyna's paintings for sale are available at auction on the UFDA website.
Polina Shcherbyna's Art Style
The artist interprets her artworks as a dual perspective on the fall of the Anthropocene concept. This duality is central to her creative process, reflected in her installations featuring double-sided artworks on wood using pyrography and carving techniques. These works often incorporate poetry sound as an additional element of the spatial-auditory perception of the work.
On one side, Polina Shcherbyna's art evokes horror and powerlessness in the face of humanity's darker aspects. On the other, her works embody faith and hope for the future.
A primary material in her practice is unprimed linen fabric glued with layers of gelatin, which preserves the fabric's crumpled curves and torn edges. This technique captures the passage of time in the form of bends and folds on the canvas. The prototype of this technical method visually is the shroud. The artist creates images with a partial loss of information, a technique that evokes the illusory nature of time and memory, reminding us that history is merely an imprint left behind.
Her practice revolves around themes of corporeality, employing anti-anatomy techniques. This exploration extends to the spiritual and physical realms of human, evolving into reflections on nature and the imagery of the tree.
In recent years, Polina Shcherbyna's arts have delved into themes of loss and the potential for healing. Drawing on deep ecology, dark vitality, and the body of war, her art examines the sacralization of death, humanity's suffering, and sacrifice in the modern world through the prism of the circle of history and Christianity.
- Resolution
- 400 MPX
- Dimensions
- 23296x17472
- Medium
- DNG
- Device
- FUJIFILM
- Device model
- GFX100S
- Lense
- FUJIFILM
- Lense model
- GF120mmF4 R LM OIS WR Macro
- Color space
- Uncalibrated
- Color profile description
- 48 bit color depth, 281 Trillion Colors
- Metering mode
- Multi-segment
- F number
- 11
- Exposure program
- Manual
- Exposure time
- 1/13
- Focal length
- 120.0 mm
- Photographer
- Digital Original Studio