From the Concentration of the Will at M17The rule of two walls (From the series "Substitution")145x100 cm, canvas, oil, hand embroidery, 2023Price on request
From the Concentration of the Will at M17Refugees/Surplus Things (From the "Replacement" Series)150x90 cm, canvas, oil, hand embroidery, 2023Price on request
Read more about the artwork
The war taught us to live "today". We are in that state of awareness of reality, when the perception of the moment is as acute as possible. It is strange to plan your "tomorrow" when you are not completely sure of what will happen in the next hour. Memory does not record events, but states. Subjective feelings of the moment, sometimes separated from the image.
This loss of a sense of control over one's own life, even if somewhat illusory, initially caused a state of despair and depression. Eventually you learn to live with this new "vision". The existing reality is so different from the previous, "peaceful" one that all memories from life before the war seem unreal, insignificant, lose their sentimental meaning. Sometimes even annoying.
Each of us has an archive of our own photos and videos, collected over decades. If you look in there, sometimes you get the impression that you are watching some other, unfamiliar person. As if the previous life was a dream from which I had to wake up. The painting "Reboot" is the second in a series of works about the past erased by the war.
From the Concentration of the Will at the NAA of UkraineUntitledCanvas, oil, hand embroidery, 2023Price on request
Video
Olesya Trofymenko's artworks
“The war taught us to live in the moment. We are in a state of awareness of reality when the perception of the moment is as acute as possible. It is odd to plan your "tomorrow" when you are not sure what will happen in the next hour. Memory does not record events, but a state of being. The subjective feelings of the moment, that are sometimes in isolation from the image.
Each of us has an archive of our photos and videos collected over decades. If you look at them, you get the impression that you are watching a different person’s life, someone you don't know. As if the previous life was an overnight dream, you had to wake up from”
About the artist
Olesya Trofymenko was born in 1982 in the city of Vilcha, studied at the National Academy of Fine Arts and Architecture in Kyiv, where she currently lives and works. Maria Grazia Curie invited Trofimenko to create a scenography for the display of Dior's new couture collection after seeing one of the artist's works combining painting and embroidery.
Olesya Trofymenko's work intertwines elements and memories of Ukrainian traditions in an intimate, very personal interpretation. For Dior, she created an iconographic project called "The Flow", where the "tree of life" is combined with floral ensembles. These traditional motifs symbolize femininity, the idea of continuity and a bright future.
She was born in 1982 in the village of Vilcha. She was educated at the State Art Secondary School named after T. G. Shevchenko (1993–2000) and the National Academy of Fine Arts and Architecture, a workshop of monumental painting under the leadership of Mykola Storozhenko (2001–2007).
She works in the field of cinema as a production artist, participated in many group art exhibitions. Lives in Kyiv.
To present its Haute Couture Fall-Winter 2022-2023 collection, the world-famous Dior brand used the works of Olesya Trofimenko at the Paris Fashion Week. For three months, Trofymenko worked on the project "Flow" of 32 embroidered canvases, which decorated the setting of the Dior show.
Production designer of the Kryposna series and several films.