Tanya Chakálova is a multidisciplinary Ukrainian artist based in Ireland. She was born in Mariupol, a metallurgical city by the sea in Ukraine. From 2009 to 2019 she lived in Kyiv, where in 2016 her artistic journey began. Initially, she focused on painting and graphics, experimenting with genres and working extensively from life. By 2020, her practice had shifted from observing the external world to engaging in self-reflection through art, and she expanded into photography, video, and sound. At that time, her key themes were acceptance, awareness, and body neutrality.

In 2021, she completed an intensive five-month course in Contemporary Art at the School of Contemporary Art at the Modern Art Research Institute in Kyiv, Ukraine.

The full-scale Russian invasion of Ukraine found Tanya in her native Mariupol. She witnessed the blockade and relentless shelling of the city, the deaths of civilians, and inhuman living conditions. The weeks she spent under constant fire left an indelible mark on her memory and were later reflected in her collages, ceramics, and cyanotypes.

After fleeing the war in 2022, Tanya relocated to Ireland and began a BA (Hons) in Art at Atlantic Technological University in Galway, which she is currently undertaking. Today, the central themes of her work are memory and identity, as well as feelings of displacement, uprootedness, and the loss of home. She continues to employ a multidisciplinary approach, working primarily with watercolour, cyanotype, and video.

The artist now works under her married name, Tanya Chakálova, although in earlier exhibitions she sometimes used the name Tanya Tsárina. To date, her work has been exhibited in Ukraine, Ireland, Germany, Slovenia, and Poland, including at the Kuindzhi Art Museum, Kühlhaus, Outset Gallery, and 126 Gallery, as well as in biennials and triennials of abstract art, and in exhibitions organized by the National Union of Artists of Ukraine and the International Watercolour Society.