Born in 1973 in Russia, Uliana Novak lives and works in Helsinki, Finland, since 2010. Holding PhD in Sociology and having more than 10 years of experience in sociological and marketing research, Uliana came to art as a self-taught artist. In 2023, she radically changed her professional path: she left academia, rented a studio, and devoted herself entirely to painting.

The main catalyst for her artistic practice was her autism spectrum disorder diagnosis, received several years earlier, which prompted her to revisit and reinterpret her past life experience. Before that, she had spent many years conducting research and writing academic texts, but had never spoken about herself. As a deep introvert who tended to avoid social interaction, she had always found communication difficult. Through painting, she discovered a previously unknown degree of freedom: the possibility of expressing her thoughts silently, through art.

Since 2023, Uliana created several series of artworks, received a number of professional recognitions, including being named Winner #1 in the Top 100 Emerging Women Artists — 2025 by Arts to Hearts Project and becoming a finalist of the Nonamecollective Gallery Challenge 2025. Since 2024, she has participated in more than ten group exhibitions in Helsinki, Moscow, Berlin, Saint Petersburg, Geneva, and New York, as well as in the XI Tashkent International Biennale of Contemporary Art.

Uliana Novak has had few solo exhibitions in Helsinki including one at the Finnish Civic Museum in 2026. Two solo exhibitions are planned for 2027 in Helsinki.

In 2026, Uliana is taking part in the continuing education programme Theory and Practice of Contemporary Art at the online school OnStudy. She is currently experimenting with contemporary art practices and working on a research project exploring ways of visualising the relationship with the world among people on the autism spectrum at the intersection of art, sociology, and neurodiversity.