Hello! My name is Darya. I’m a Korean artist born in Kazakhstan based in Cambridge. Painting is something I am very passionate about; my art practice mostly consists of that. For this final year of my study, I focused the subject on sunfish. It’s a fish which I have a special connection with, so you can encounter it quite often in my paintings.
Fine Art
Darya Kan
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‘?’ 2026, cardboard, mirror
My work revolves entirely around the sunfish - a fish often dismissed as the ‘trash’ of the sea. To me, it is a creature of quiet irony: incredibly fragile yet whilst also strong and resilient.
Through my experimental ‘sight-seeing’ painting, I made the sunfish the principle character to explore its bizarre shape and nature. For my graduate show, I developed this interest towards 3D with a huge cardboard sculpture of the fish looking into a mirror. The humour lies in its biology. Seen from the front, the sunfish is practically a line, making its own reflection a comedic existential crisis.
By allowing this flat, awkward creature to dominate the gallery space, I invite viewers to consider how we perceive value, beauty and presence in the natural world.
Connect with Darya
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