Dvorak-Halik Olesia

Member of the National Union of Artists of Ukraine (2013).

Olesia was born in Uzhhorod, Transcarpathia. When she was a child, her parents gave their gifted daughter to the fine studio of Zoltan Bakoniia. She was full of the desire to draw, thus at the end of the ninth grade, the young artist enters the Uzhhorod College of Applied Art at the Department of Art Pottery. An outstanding role in the formation of a creative personality was played by unsurpassed teachers Liudmyla Averkiieva, Pavlo Balla and Nadiia Didyk.

The art of ceramics was well-known to the girl because the father's brother was a potter, however, she saw herself as a fashion designer. Therefore, after the college in 1995, she tries to enter the Lviv Academy of Arts to fulfil her dream. As fate would have it, she did not enter the modeling department, but the department of artistic ceramics, where she studied from 1996 to 2002. As the artist herself admits, she never regretted it in her future creative life.

Ukrainian traditions in ceramics have always been deep and diverse – these are dishes, decorations, elements of the home interior and various household items. However, over time, the emphasis in contemporary art space has been moved and works of decorative and applied art have receded into the background, giving way to painting, sculpture and the newest art technologies. This state of things does not satisfy the artist, so she harbours ambitious ideas for the development of ceramics, as a self-sufficient direction of art.

In her works Olesia forms an individual style, creating art objects that are not related to the applied direction. She creatively comprehends the works, integrates them conceptually. Her works are characterized by expression – this is achieved due to unusual shapes, decorations, and variety. She uses geometric and plant ornamentation, plays with the shape and colour.

The artist’s creativity consists of installation compositions, sculptural ceramics, garden and park sculptures. Addition to the clay is canvas, wood, metal, plastic and other materials. Olesia Dvorak-Halik works with paintings (watering), relief (plastic-textured decor), as well she uses both traditional and author's techniques.

The ceramic artist is inspired by nature, and for the creation of abstract installations and various art objects she uses waste PVC, metal, and wood. Sometimes she sketches ideas, but there are ideas that she carries for months: she embodies them in a sculpture on an emotional level without sketches and calculations – only intuitive modelling and complete freedom. For example, under the impression from far-away Mexico, it was appeared the same name series of works with which the artist represented Ukraine at the international art fair of contemporary art Berliner Liste 2017.

The artist is the author and inspirer of eight curatorial projects, initiated and implemented in the period from 1998 to 2017. In particular, Olesia became a co-founded of the festival “Contemporary ceramics in the urban space” – the first project, laid the foundation of the now famous annual All-Ukrainian festival of contemporary ceramics “TseGlyna” (since 2013).

In August 2016 Olesia together with colleagues opens a new art space unique for Ukraine – the TseGlynArt Gallery, in which the leading Ukrainian artists demonstrate contemporary small ceramic plastics and soft sculpture, interactive works that can transform in time and space and acquire new content in communication with the viewer. Thus, the art of ceramics in Ukraine received the second breath.

The artist continues to generate ideas and unite around herself professionals-like-minded and connoisseurs of art ceramics. Her plans include new projects and international cultural exchange.

In 2018, on the co-authorship of the artist, the world saw the first edition of the book-album “Contemporary Ukrainian ceramics of the XII century”, which reflects the work of twelve artists, including the Transcarpathian: Beata Korn, Nata Popova, Olha Pylnyk and, actually Olesia Dvorak-Halik.

The author is a participant of more than 20 art exhibitions in Ukraine and abroad. Among them – the personal exhibition “In The Rhythm Of The Sun” at the Museum of Contemporary Art of Ukraine (Kyiv, 2012), the Grand Sculptural Salon (Kyiv, 2015), CORPUSCULUM I (Kyiv, 2015), Paris Design Week (Paris, 2016), Berliner Liste Berlin, 2017), CORPUSCULUM II (Kyiv, 2017), VII All-Ukrainian Triennial of Sculpture (Kyiv, 2017), “TsheGlyna” Festival of Contemporary Ceramics, Kyiv Art Week (2018), 2nd All-Ukrainian Exhibition “Contemporary Art of the Fire of Ukraine. Ceramics, Glass, Metal” (Kyiv, 2018), “iFashion-Art” (Kyiv, 2018).

The works of Olesia Dvorak-Halik are stored in the collections of the Museum of Art named after M.P. Kroshytskyi in Sevastopol, the National Museum-Reserve of Ukrainian Pottery in Opishne, the Museum "Spiritual Treasures of Ukraine" in Kyiv, as well as in private collections in Ukraine and abroad.

Text: Liudmyla Kozlovska
© Art & Culture Foundation Brovdi Art