Svetlana Shavrina is an Eastern European painter based in London, UK, with over 20 years of artistic experience. She works primarily with oil on canvas, incorporating palette knife techniques into her practice. She creates and exhibits under the name Lana Swan, her creative pseudonym.
Svetlana’s artistic practice is rooted in Post-Impressionism, while also exploring abstract and psychedelic approaches. Her work focuses on the emotional relationship between people and the world around them, using colour, texture and expressive paintwork to convey particular places, experiences and states of mind.
Born in Kuibyshev (now Samara), Russia, Svetlana left Russia in 2022 and moved to Dubai, where she lived and worked for three years before relocating to London. Her experiences of living in different cultural environments, from Eastern Europe to the UAE and the UK, have influenced her artistic perspective and continue to inform her practice. The events she experienced, together with the cultures and environments she encountered, have become an important part of her visual and emotional language.
Alongside her artistic education, Svetlana studied at a Mathematics Gymnasium and received a degree in Mathematics from Samara State University. She also studied at a professional ballet school and an art school in Samara.
Svetlana is a member of the Artists’ Trade Union and is included in the United Register of Professional Artists of Eastern Europe.
Her work has been presented at international exhibitions and art fairs, including World Art Dubai, Art Shopping at the Carrousel du Louvre in Paris, StartArt at the International Exlibris Museum in Moscow, and Boston Manor House in West London.
