Olena Melnyk


  • CV
  • Artist statement
  • Contacts
  • Exhibitions

Hello! My name is Olena



I'm an artist. Here you can see my works.



Common matter
Collaboration with Yana Zschiedrich, Brigita Kasperaite, Corinna Wolff and Taisiia Kravchenko



This project is about researching the material and the ways to work with it. It combines in itself the properties of the plastic and organic matter. Biological mass, raw and earthy, made out of literal worm feces, combines with slick and clear human-made material. It is soft and obedient when it’s born. It will take whatever shape is given. But within minutes, it hardens and stays still. It can burn hands. It is fragile when stretched out too much. It can’t really be reshaped when hardened. It is about the future and new ways of existence.



Erasure



project investigates the properties of material when it is applied and erased in different ways. It also speculates with meanings that can be found in reflection upon this technique and its symbolic implementations.



Hate and Despair



project is focused on the investigation of the process of creating art. It questions the relation of the author towards its medium and the tension created by the necessity to create that leads towards the desire to destroy.



Omens



This project is about the feeling of the impending doom and the realm of supernatural.



Beholding



This series reflects on the apocalyptic thoughts emerging from the perceived reality. It appeals to the spiritual and religious reasoning and strives to get a glimpse on the powers that lay beyond human comprehension.



Color



Investigating a single property of an object such as color, an atten- tive observer can mention traces of particles, on which perception is built.



The Unknown



"The Unknown" series is the immersion in vague waters of subcon- scious and observing the unknown worlds, that lay beyond its bor- ders.



Ghosts



This graphic series means to catch the thought, that comes to consciousness like a ghost from nowhere and similarly disappears in the void of subconscious.



aRTIST STATEMENT



As an artist, I struggle a lot to understand what I should do and how to make it make sense. Constant questioning and doubts about art, life, and the world are at the core of my practice. Art becomes the problem but also the solution in this process.


The ability of materials to be the narrative bearers by themselves is interesting to me. For example, I use traditional painting materials such as canvas and oil when I want to reflect on traditional painting and the relationships between the artist and art. Other materials, such as blood, polyester, and clay, evoke my interest in a similar way.


In the working process, I search for a way to invent specific routines that bear a connection to the symbolic and ritualistic acts. My technical approach changes every time I start a new project because every time I investigate a new topic, I am looking for the specific technique that would reflect it. The connection between the process, material, and the topic is simultaneously allegorical and as direct as possible. Imprinting of the process in material, that the viewer can perceive and reflect upon, is important for me.


By combining materials and actions, I am striving to create a thing that would have its own being. A phenomenon by itself that would confront the viewer and provoke thoughts and reflections. I do it because I have the inner urge to bring something into existence, and simultaneously question the existence and want to share this questioning.



cv



EDUCATION:


Painting Diploma (In progress)

Academy of Fine Arts Leipzig (Hochschule für Grafik und Buchkunst), Leipzig 2023-now


B.A. in Graphic design

Kherson National Technical University, Kherson 2010-2014


SHOWS:


Common matter

Group project, Funken, Chemnitz, 2025


Erasure

Solo exhibition in HGB Leipzig, 2025, Leipzig


Spooning

Group exhibition, A&O Kunsthalle, 2024, Leipzig


Eberhard-Dietzsch-Kunspreis

Nominatns exhibition, 2024, Gera


Hate and Despair

in collaboration with Max Kummer at BSMNT gallery within "Leftovers" project, 2024, Leipzig


Snot

group project, as a part of Anne Speier’s class in HGB Leipzig, 2023, Leipzig


Re:fresh

group exhibition, 2022, Leipzig



Olena.b.melnyk@gmail.com