From an early age, Yaroslava Muzyka spent time among books and her family’s collection of icons. She began her formal art education in the painting workshop of Ivan Trush in Lviv, and also attended the private studio of Stanislav Batovskyi-Kachor (1917–1919). From 1920 to 1923, she studied in the Faculty of Plastic Arts at the Free Academy of Arts in Lviv, mastering techniques of folk painting and iconography.
In 1924, Muzyka began working as a restorer at the National Museum in Lviv, training under Ihor Hrabarskyi and Hryhorii Pezhanskyi. In 1928, on the recommendation of Ilarion Sventsitskyi, she went to the Central Scientific Restoration Workshop in Moscow, where she studied Old Russian frescoes in Novgorod and Pskov, enriching her collection with historical examples of icon painting. In 1935, she continued her studies at the André Lhote Academy in Paris, developing her style based on European modernist principles combined with Ukrainian artistic traditions.
Yaroslava Muzyka actively collected and catalogued works by Mykhailo Boichuk and his followers. In the prewar years, she hid delicate examples of Boichukism within her apartment walls, risking arrest to preserve them from destruction. After the war, over 200 works from her private collection were transferred to the holdings of the Lviv Art Gallery, forming the foundation for the revival of the Ukrainian monumental-decorative school.
On November 8, 1948, Muzyka was arrested on charges of “nationalist activity” and sentenced to 25 years in labor camps. After Stalin’s death, she was released on June 6, 1955, and her conviction was annulled. Returning to Lviv, she resumed her restoration work and painting, holding solo exhibitions in 1957 and 1964, presenting landscapes, portraits, and decorative panels.
Over seven decades of artistic activity, Yaroslava Muzyka produced more than 2,000 works in painting, graphics, mosaic, enamel, batik, leather embossing, carpet design, and appliqué. Among her most notable works are the graphic series Animals (1932–1965) and To Shevchenko (1961–1964); the mosaic The Meeting of Dovbush with Dzvinka (1962); glass painting Anna Yaroslavna (1967); and the enamel series Folk Beliefs (1965–1966).
Muzyka combined the restoration of historical works with experimentation in decorative arts, preserved the invaluable heritage of the Boichukists, and inspired generations of researchers and artists.
In 2000, the Yaroslava Muzyka Prize was established in Ternopil to support amateur artists.