DepartmentEurope

Повелителька Дронів (Lady of the Drones)

NamePainting on wood

Artist Roman Selivachov (Ukrainian, born 1976)

CultureUkrainian

Date2024

Place madeUkraine, Europe

Mediumwood, paint

Dimensions22 3/4 × 14 1/4 × 2 in. (57.7851 × 36.1951 × 5.08 cm)

Credit LineMuseum of International Folk Art, Gift of Roman Selivachov, IFAF Collection, FA.2025.13.3

Object numberFA.2025.13.3

DescriptionLady of the Drones is dedicated to the women of the military. “While the figure references the iconography of the Madonna and Sandro Botticelli’s (ca. 1445–1510) The Birth of Venus, she is a woman at war, toeing the complex line between fertility and death,” shares Selivachov. Here and in Cossack Drone Operator, Selivachov features the prevalent use of drone warfare in this ongoing conflict.

Selivachov, who is a professional icon painter and artist, began painting ammunition boxes in 2014 at the start of Russia’s military campaign. Friends and volunteers continue to bring back boxes from the front and, in turn, Selivachov provides them with funds to be used for urgent military needs. “It is a sort of soldier-artist symbiosis,” he says.