Sofya Yechina is an artist and a writer (Russia/Serbia).

Sofya was born in 1990 in Goryachiye Klyuchi village on the island of Iturup, the largest of the Kuril archipelago, the USSR.

In 2010 she was accepted to the youth organization of the Russian Association of Artists. Sofya’s first solo exhibition took place in Kursk, Russia, in 2010.

In 2012 she became a member of the Russian Association of Artists, and the International Association of Art, partnered with Unesco. She obtained her Master of Arts diploma the same year from Kursk State University.

In 2013 Sofya won a scholarship provided by the German town of Speyer within its artist in residency programme. This became a starting point of her career in Western Europe. She has since had a number of solo exhibitions (Treiber Gallery, Vienna, 2015; Rathaus, Schifferstadt, Germany, 2017), as well as group exhibitions both in Europe.

Sofya has 34 personal exhibition in 10 different countries (Russia, Serbia, Austria, Germany, Croatia, BiH, e.t.c) and more than 100 group exhibitions all over the world.

Her paintings are part of the official collection of Belgorod Art Museum (Russia), Kursk Art Museum (Russia), Ilanium Naïve Art Museum (Šid, Serbia), and private collections in Austria, Germany, Russia, Finland, Serbia, and China. Sofya’s artwork is also part of the official collection of Rhein-Pfalz-Kreis, Germany.

Since 2016 Sofya has been member of the International Federation of Journalists. She has published books titled “Beograd u plavom” (Belgrade in Blue, 4CE) and  “30 slika Helma” (30 Pictures of Helm). She has also taken part in a number of literature festivals and international writers’ events.

Sofya’s life has inspired a documentary called “U potrazi za mestom” (In Search of a Place), directed by Miroslav Bata Petrović, a Fiks Fokus production.

Sofya has lived and worked in Belgrade since 2017 taking inspiration in Serbia, its landscapes, people, and culture.

Sofya also travels very often to Bangladesh and she is inspired by the culture of South Asia. Sofya made a number of illustrations for the work of famous Bengali poets.