Olena Papka

Transfiguration

Transfiguration is the phenomenon of changes in signs, properties, and other metamorphoses.
During the war, changes are constant and instantaneous on all possible levels, from global, geopolitical, and cultural to individual transformations, physical or mental.
All paintings were created specifically for this exhibition between August and October 2023. Some of these are based on sketches drawn as pure, quick reactions to events or reflections on them. Some of the plots were born spontaneously in the process of work.
Preparation for the exhibition caught me in a period of my own creative metamorphosis, where I gradually changed the painting style and the semantic load of the content; I am moving from the obvious and direct to symbolism.

My artistic practice is connected with two styles: decorative symbolism and naive genre. It is the naive works that are presented in the Transfiguration project.

My paintings in the naive genre are like an airbag that softens the impact of reality.

This is an opportunity to look at events through the lens of irony, to be healed with humor, and to broadcast ease of being, even when I depict war. Sometimes, a plot is quite specific, and sometimes, it islike taking a snapshot of internal or external changes, and rethinking values through easy metaphorical images.

Faced with the challenges and consequences of the war, I realized that now the power of art is in the ability to be turned into a weapon that destroys enemies.I transfer 50% of the price of each painting to the needs of the Armed Forces of Ukraine.

BIO

Olena Papka, 1990.

The artist was born and works in Lviv. A furniture designer by profession, she graduated from the National Forestry University of Ukraine.

For an artist without a classical art education, creative skills and achievements result from persistent artistic experiments and intuitive decisions.

She decided to start her artistic career in 2021. During this period, she formed two recognizable styles. Olena participates in collective exhibitions in Ukraine and abroad and charity art projects. Her media is painting, and she works with naive and decorative symbolism. With the beginning of the full-scale invasion, the artist began working on a graphic series that she regularly adds to new works by instantly responding to war triggers.

Olena's dominant style is a mixture of symbolism, figurative and decorative art, and the main characters are women.

Ornament, as an integral part of Ukrainian culture, is a mandatory element

in paintings by the artist. Through allegorical female images, she reflects on her states and reactions to events and explores relationships with the environment and herself.

The rethinking of Ukrainian artistic heritage is a new field of the artist's creative interests, which she brings to life in her new works.

Born in 1990 in Lviv, lives and works here.
Works as an artist since 2021.

Education

2007-2011 National Technical University of Ukraine, Department of Design

Select group exhibitions:

2021 Fest Republic, the Shcho Yak Nai festival of young art, Lviv, Ukraine
2021 Art:EGO Spivakovska gallery exhibition of the works of the winners of the Woman competition. Beauty. Harmony., Kyiv, Ukraine
2022 "ScheMit", Frank's house, Lviv, Ukraine
2022 The War Map, Uart.Gallery, Tel Aviv, Israel
2022 Brave art, Uart.Gallery, Austin, USA
2022 World with Women, Uart.Gallery, Monza, Italy
2023 Project "Return", Steinberg Gallery, Chernivtsi, Ukraine
Auctions
2022 Forbes Prague charity auction for IOU
2022 Nadiya Shpachenko's music album "Invasion", visual artist
2023 "Passportization" campaign of the Ministry of Reintegration of the Temporarily Occupied Territories, creating graphic works for posters.