Acrylic painting “Nothing Happened Here” (2025) by Nataliya Bagatskaya (Ukraine)

In this striking painting, a young woman lies on a bed, her gaze distant yet penetrating, as if caught between thought and dream. A lit cigarette rests gracefully in her hand, its delicate smoke curling upwards, creating a tranquil rhythm in the stillness of the room. The deep blue walls and dark background contrast with her pale skin and black hair, enhancing the cinematic atmosphere. Above her, the expression of a large-eyed cat, captured in a vintage-style framed mirror, adds a surreal and slightly whimsical layer, as if the cat were silently guarding a secret world. This work plays with duality: intimacy and distance, gentleness and strength, reality and imagination. It invites the viewer not only to observe but also to feel the tension in the air and to enter the moment, as if they, too, were lying in that room, listening to the silence.