About
Short BIO
Olly Karpenko is a Kyiv-based visual artist working primarily in watercolor, monotype, sepia painting, and ink drawing. Her artistic practice is rooted in attentive observation and explores urban and natural environments through series-based projects combining direct visual experience with experimentation.
Originally trained as a mathematician and later working professionally in psychology and socionics research, she approaches artistic practice as a form of perception and understanding.
Her works often focus on the fragile continuity of everyday life, infrastructure, movement, landscape, plants, birds, and marine subjects.
Field observation, experimentation, and long-term visual inquiry form the basis of her artistic process.
Olly’s work has been presented in solo and group exhibitions in Ukraine and internationally, including Finland, Poland, France, and the United States. In 2024, she became a member of the National Union of Artists of Ukraine.
Fragments of Process
Artist Statement
My work begins with attentive looking. I am interested in moments when an ordinary place unexpectedly becomes meaningful. Through watercolor, monotype, and drawing, I follow the ways cities, landscapes, and everyday environments reveal themselves over time.
I am drawn to places where urban and natural environments meet and influence one another. Vegetation, water, weather, infrastructure, and human presence form changing relationships that shape the character of a place. Railway stations, streets, power plants, waterfronts, flowers, and birds often become recurring subjects in my work.
Direct observation is central to my practice, but not as an end in itself. I am interested in what remains when unnecessary detail falls away and how much information is needed for recognition.
As I return to the same places, memory and familiarity gradually become as important as what first drew my attention.
Recent projects, including Ljutyj 2022, #KyivCityExpress, and Helsinki–Kyiv, grew from specific places, situations, and experiences. They reflect my interest in attention, continuity, movement, and the ways familiar environments change through time and circumstance.
Experiment remains an important part of my practice. Watercolor monotype, layering, and graphic techniques allow me to balance observation with transformation and to discover structures and relationships that are not immediately visible.
I hope my work encourages viewers to look again and notice something that may have been there all along.
Contact
WhatsApp/ Telegram/Viber
+380960885677
olly.olga@gmail.com
