Vera Tepliakova

I work primarily with oil painting on hand-cut wooden panels, using form as an active part of the image rather than a neutral surface. My practice is focused on the relationship between shape and representation, and on how the physical structure of a work can influence the way an image is read.

I use cut wooden panels to move beyond the fixed logic of the rectangular canvas and to treat painting as both image and object. The contour of each piece becomes part of its meaning; it shapes the emotional and narrative structure of the work.

My practice is rooted in personal experience, memory, and displacement. I often work through autobiographical fragments, using personal narratives as a way to speak about broader social conditions. Through these stories, I address vulnerability, gender, social pressure, and the body as a site shaped by both private experience and external systems. I approach painting as a way of structuring memory and giving form to lived experience. My work draws from what is intimate and personal, but it is shaped by a wider social reality.