Page 25 - South Mississippi Living - September, 2026

“I wanted to slow down and truly observe my
new surroundings,” she said. “Through landscape
painting, I was gradually getting to know my new
home and learning how to be present again.”
It took time.
Nearly a year and a half passed before she felt
she could breathe deeply enough to fully embrace
this next chapter, both personally and creatively.
Her work has evolved beyond landscapes
and returned to the figurative paintings she
believes best express her artistic voice. Through
them, she explores identity, memory, resilience,
vulnerability, and the quiet emotional experiences
that connect us all.
“More than anything, I hope that when
someone stands in front of my work, they feel less
alone,” she said.
That desire to create connection has resonated
with audiences throughout the Coast and beyond.
Since arriving in Mississippi, Gusiuk has
steadily established herself within the American
art community. Her work has been featured in
exhibitions at the Meridian Museum of Art and
the Pensacola Museum of Art. She has earned
awards in Ocean Springs, is represented by My
Happy Place Gallery, was recently recognized
among 100 Women Artists on the Rise, and her
solo exhibition, Soft Architecture, is currently on
display at The Traveler by Walter Anderson in
Ocean Springs.
Yet when asked which accomplishment means
the most, she doesn’t mention a single award.
“I’m most proud of having the courage to begin
again,” she said.
Before coming to the United States, Gusiuk
spent 16 years teaching art in Ukraine
while exhibiting her work nationally and
internationally. Arriving in Mississippi meant
stepping into an entirely new artistic community
where no one knew her name.
“I had to introduce myself—and my work—to
people who had never heard of me before,” she
said.
Rather than viewing that challenge as starting
over, Gusiuk chose to see it differently. “I may
have started a new chapter, but I did not start
from nothing,” she said. “I brought with me my
experience, my craftsmanship, my artistic voice,
and my belief that honest work can resonate with
people anywhere.”
That philosophy is reflected in Soft Architecture,
SOUTH MISSISSIPPI Living | www.smliving.net her first solo exhibition in the United States.
Despite its title, the collection isn’t about
buildings. Instead, it explores what she calls our
“inner architecture”—the invisible emotional
spaces shaped by memory, resilience, and dreams.
After leaving Ukraine, she found herself
thinking often about the meaning of home. “I
realized that home is not only a physical place,”
she said. “It is something we gradually rebuild
within ourselves, even when everything around us
has changed.”
Gusiuk is currently creating new figurative
works while teaching both children and adults
through private lessons and online classes for
students around the world. She is also preparing
work for national juried exhibitions and museum
competitions,
continuing
to build
a career
that spans
continents
while
remaining
rooted on the
Coast.
Her paintings
no longer focus
solely on what
was left behind.
Instead, they
reflect the life
she has carefully
rebuilt—one defined
not only by survival,
but by hope, purpose,
and possibility.
Gusiuk feels home is
no longer measured by
geography alone. It is found
in a studio filled with fresh
canvases, in students discovering
their own artistic voices, in a
daughter growing up surrounded by
opportunity, and in an Ocean Springs
community that welcomed an artist carrying
far more than just luggage.
Sometimes home isn’t where our story
begins. Sometimes it’s where we find the
courage to begin again.
September 2026 | 25