Mila Rosha
multifaceted artist
Mila Rosha is a multifaceted artist whose practice integrates drawing, painting, sewing, embroidery, ceramics and mosaics. Mila has been creating since childhood, invariably transforming moments of solitude into artistic creations. Born in Siberia, Mila Rosha brings a profound affection for the gloomy northern landscapes and their mysterious charm to her art. Another powerful source of inspiration for Mila is Victorian literature, echoes of which are particularly vivid in her monochromatic drawings, where graceful hands hold bats and candelabras. In these images, the delicacy of Victorian refinement unexpectedly intertwines with the nocturnal, forming a union at once unsettling and poetic.
With ink, graphite, and thread, Rosha pursues a single, persistent sensation: mystery. It is the kind of feeling that clings to the pages of a Gothic novel - haunted houses, vampires, ghosts - where the tension and the silence are palpable. Part of this tension stems from the temporal ambiguity of Rosha’s pieces. At first glance, it can be difficult to determine whether the work is old or new. Rosha deliberately interweaves historical intonations with contemporary restraint, allowing one era to illuminate another. In doing so, she becomes less a storyteller and more of a bridge, inviting viewers to be transported to another time without leaving the present.
One of Rosha’s signature approaches is to juxtapose two seemingly distant worlds - the human and the non-human. At first glance, these realms appear separate: flower and hand, body and plant, movement and stillness. Yet in her compositions, they permeate each other deeply, evoking metaphors as sharp as a cloud piercing crescent moon at night. Her darkly poetic graphics, based on literature and mythological motifs, carry multiple layers of meaning. Beyond their intricate network of cultural references, they stand as deeply personal meditations on human consciousness and the inexhaustible potential to build an inner mythology.
Criticism around Rosha’s drawings stresses that her black-and-white “darkness” is a companion to light that reveals where eras overlap. In this register, bats become mediators rather than macabre props - figures of passage between human and non-human, night and day, the ornamental and the feral.
Rosha’s public profiles consistently position her as both illustrator and maker across media - drawing, painting, and notably working with embroidery - a material bridge between image and textile, reinforcing the idea that stitch and line are equal bearers of meaning in her practice.
Rosha’s works are regularly featured in international exhibitions, receiving wide acclaim. Most recently, she was shortlisted at the Silk Road Impressions international competition in Kyrgyzstan. Her works are in private collections worldwide: from Norway to the UK, Germany, Mexico, and the USA.
Mila Rosha is an illustrator who works primarily in ink and graphite, but also with oils, thread, and in a digital format. She creates illustrations and textile artworks taking inspiration from nature, literature and bygone eras. In her work you can find how darkness and light meet and create the feeling of melancholy for old places and times.
With inks, graphite and thread she tries to describe the feeling of mystery, the same feeling when you read an old gothic novel about haunted houses, vampires and ghosts. You are sitting comfortably by the fire, but the images created send shivers down your spine.
When you look at Rosha's works, it is quite difficult to tell whether it is old or modern art, she tries to connect different eras and become a bridge that can take you to another time. Rosha's work is often described as filled with "melancholia, romanticism and mystery."
