Pylnyk Olha

Member of the Union of Designers of Ukraine.

Olha Pylnyk was born on 19 April 1980 in Uzhhorod. When she was a child she liked to create various interesting things. She used everything for handwork: paper, fabrics, threads, darts and plasticine. Nobody painted in the family, but her mother was always by her side when Olha needed help with sewing, weaving or applique. It was Olha’s mother who discovered her art skills and offered to develop them. As a result, from 1995 to 2005, a ten-year period formation of the creative vision of the young artist started: first – at the Uzhhorod College of Applied and Decorative Arts named after A. Erdeli, where Olha studied at the Department of art ceramics. Her teachers were Liudmyla Averkieva, Mykhailo Pryimych and Yosyp Pal. Subsequently, she studied at the Lviv Academy of Arts and received a master's degree. During the years of study, getting acquainted with the world heritage of contemporary art, the student felt close spirit with the work of the outstanding artists, sculptors, designers and architects. Among them: Pablo Picasso, Fernando Botero, Joan Miro, Friedensreich Hundertwasser, and Niki de Saint Fall.

Olha started her creative career with the ceramic interior design. And then she continued her development in two directions: artistic one – as an artist and designer – as a brand of ceramics. “Both are exciting,” Olha stated, “but they have different directions. I, as an artist, am also interested in global philosophical questions. As to manufacturing, the main thing is quality, ease of use, and a creative idea. Although everything starts from the very idea!”

The creative credo of the artist – “Non-standard approach to standard things” – immediately becomes clear and accurate when you see the author's performance of seemingly everyday things like dish, tiles, candlesticks, interior decoration items. These things bring you back to childhood when everything is simple. And you feel surrounded with care and love. And the more you get acquainted with Olha’s works, the more you realize that everything can be ceramic: stylish clothes, women's handbags, firewood, even grass. A lot of the author’s works are full of the subtle sense of humour and irony.

The artist works in various techniques: handmade pottery with chamotte, slip casting, openwork ceramics. She likes to experiment, combining these techniques with various watering and materials.

Today Olha Pylnyk is a well-known and popular ceramist of Lviv. She is open to the world conception and she prefers the creative development, sharing ideas with talented colleagues, friends and drawing inspiration at art forums, contemporary studios of subject design and ceramics: “Grandly Workshop”, “Front”, “UNLOPEZMAS”, “KiKi”.

Since 1999, Olha Pylnyk's works have been exhibited at numerous group and solo exhibitions in Ukraine, Slovakia, Poland, Romania, and Norway. The artists managed to carry out a number of conceptual projects presented at “Zelena Kanapa” Gallery (Lviv), Dzyha Museum (Lviv), Mystetskyi Arsenal (Kyiv), Museum of Contemporary Fine Arts of Ukraine (Kyiv).

According to the author, she is interested not only in the idea but also in the presentation of the project, the technique of execution. In order a work to cause emotions, perhaps even ambiguous. “In a work, there must be some aesthetics and stimulus at the same time – then the task is fulfilled,” Olha says.                                                                         

The artist’s favourite projects:

“Chinvasiia” (2010) – an installation made up of ceramic heads of Chinese as well as Chinese musical toys, designed to draw attention to dominance, mass invasion of low-quality Chinese goods to Ukraine, and more broadly – to pressure of modern trends on humans.

“Drowsiness” (2011) – a feminine, sensual, exciting project on routine and expression of feelings.

“Fruits of Cognition” (2012) – the artist managed to create an amazing atmosphere of the Garden of Eden, “where actually the ‘beginning of sin of the fall’ took place or, nevertheless, ‘the beginning of cognition’. The project touches upon the philosophical question of the first sin. What is it and why did it happen?”

“Alley of Glory” (2012) – a project featuring an innovative, authorial combination of ceramics with embroidery, where glamourous shirts serve as lampshades. In the project, the artist compares mass consciousness “clogged” with imposed stamps and standards, the pristine consciousness of “Tabula Rasa”.

“Fossil 4018” (2018) is a futuristic and very disturbing reflection about what fossils we will probably leave to our descendants after two thousand years. The author raises the question of waste utilization, in particular, plastic rubbish, the imprints of which are reflected in each product of this project.

In 2018, it was published the first edition of the book “Modern Ukrainian Ceramics XII”, in which among the twelve talented artists of the present day a worthy place was occupied by the creativity of Olha Pylnyk.

Text: Liudmyla Kozlovska