Bavaria through the eyes of a Ukrainian, 2024-2025
After the full-scale war began in 2022, I moved to Munich. Every street, every building, every landscape reminded me of Ukraine — and this series was born.
Special feature of the series:
Each work connects Bavaria and Ukraine. The gold in my works is the light that I carry within me. It is the memory of home that is always with me, even thousands of kilometers away. Ten works in which Bavarian exteriors quietly echo Ukrainian images.
Each painting is a quiet dialogue with the homeland that I carry in my heart.
Each work in the series is a unique story with a hidden mystery that connects two worlds.
The series includes:
- Certificates of authenticity
- 10 oil paintings with gold leaf
- Dimensions: 30×30 to 150×100 cm
CONCEPT
This series of paintings was born out of pain and hope, out of rupture and the search for integrity. On February 24, 2022, at 3:40 a.m., clocks in Ukraine and Europe showed the same time, but reality became radically different. In one part of the world, rockets began to explode, while in another, life went on as usual.
The author, artist Natalia Bereznyak, forced to leave Ukraine with her son, found herself in Munich — a city where every street, every building, every detail began to remind her of home. This series is an attempt to connect two worlds, two realities, two parts of a broken heart through art.
ARTISTIC LANGUAGE
Gold thread runs through almost all of the works in the series, creating visual unity and a symbolic connection between the pieces. This is not just an aesthetic choice — gold here acts as:
- A thread of memory connecting the past and the present
- A symbol of indomitable spirit
- A blessing and prayer for peace
- A sacred dimension of everyday life
Hidden symbolism is present in each work. The author embeds Ukrainian symbols into German landscapes and objects, creating a multi-layered narrative where the personal intertwines with the collective, and the local with the universal.
Each of my paintings is a bridge between two worlds.
Nataliia Berezniak
The gold in my works is the light of hope that does not fade even in the darkest times.
ARTWORKS
Victory Gate, Munich
80×60 cm, oil, gold leaf, canvas
The artwork was featured in the exhibition “Thirty Artists” in 2025 (Ottobrunn, Munich district), took third place in the audience vote, and was published in the magazine “My Ottobrunn” in January 2026.
At the Victory Gate (Siegestor), where the fourth angel should be, an angel appears with a trident in his hands. This work is about waiting, about incompleteness, about a victory that is yet to come. It is a visualization of hope, a symbol of a victory that is yet to come.
Motherland
80×60 cm, oil, gold leaf, canvas
The work was featured in the art exhibition “Natural and Urban Landscapes” in 2024, Ottobrunn, won the audience award, and was featured in a publication by Münchner Merkur.
The Bavaria statue stands majestically above Munich in the night lights, but in the puddles of rainwater reflecting the light, another reflection appears—the silhouette of Kiev’s Motherland. Two maternal figures, two symbols of protection and strength, two homes united in one image.
This work is about how a true home always lives on in reflections, in memories, in the depths of consciousness.
Angel of Peace
150×100 cm, oil, gold leaf, canvas
The golden sculpture of the Angel of Victory (Friedensengel) blesses the city, but the silhouette of the Kyiv-Pechersk Lavra is barely visible on the horizon. This is the artist’s prayer, visualized on canvas — a blessing of peace for Ukraine, the hope that this angel will spread its protective power to the native land.
St. Peter’s Cathedral
40×30 cm, oil, gold leaf, canvas
St. Peter’s Church (Peterskirche) — Munich’s oldest church — rises into the clear sky, but at its top is an Orthodox symbol of the native land.
This work is about how faith transcends borders, how spirituality has no geographical boundaries.
3:40
40×40 cm, oil, gold leaf, canvas
The clock in Munich’s main square, frozen at the moment when full-scale war began. This is the point of rupture, the moment when time was divided into “before” and “after.” The gold hands point to the same time that clocks across Europe showed, but only for Ukraine did this become a time of catastrophe.
Tear
40×30 cm, oil, gold leaf, canvas
A golden background with a poem by Lina Kostenko written on it — about irreversibility, about the fact that life goes on without the possibility of correction or reversal. This work is a requiem for the dead, for those young lives that cannot be brought back. Gold takes on a sacred meaning here — as in icons, as eternal memory, as an attempt to immortalize those who are no longer with us.
Bretzel
30×30 cm, oil, gilding, canvas
Traditional Bavarian pastries on a bright background hide a secret: the Ukrainian flag peeks through the hole in the pretzel. This is a story about how a refugee sees home in the most unexpected places, how a foreign culture becomes a temporary refuge, preserving memories of one’s true home.
Calm
80×60 cm, oil, gold leaf, canvas
A figure on a SUP board on Lake Kiemsee in the rays of the setting sun. A moment of calm and solitude. The golden surface of the water transforms an everyday scene into a meditative image. It is about finding balance in an unstable world, about trying to find peace when the soul is torn between here and there.
Golden Leaf of Memory
70×70 cm, oil, gold leaf, canvas
A golden maple leaf is depicted on a blue background, with Ukrainian symbols hidden in its veins: Motherland, Trident, and St. Sophia Cathedral in Kyiv. The gold of the leaf emphasizes the value of memories, and the woven images remind us of the unbreakable bond with our native land.
Zugspitze
60×80 cm, oil, gold leaf, canvas
The painting “Zugspitze” from the Bavarian Gold Series is a view of the Bavarian Alps through the eyes of a Ukrainian refugee. In the shadow of the mountains, the silhouettes of a mother and child are barely visible, symbolizing strength, hope, and love in a new, unknown world. The gold of the sunset gives the work a sacred atmosphere and emphasizes the inner light that does not fade even in the darkest times.
Presentation “Golden Threads of Memory” for download
Here you can download a presentation of Natalia Bereziak’s series of works in German in PDF format.
Presentation “Golden Threads of Memory” for download
Here you can download a presentation of Natalia Bereziak’s series of works in Ukrainian in PDF format.