Biography
Alena Olasyuk is a Ukrainian artist based in Paris, after twelve years in Beijing and time in Vienna. She studied Art and Journalism at the Beijing Institute of Fashion Technology and debuted her first solo exhibition, Three Steps, in 2014. Since then, her work has been shown internationally in China, Taiwan, Ukraine, France, and at the Curitiba Biennale in Brazil (2017). Recent highlights include two solo exhibitions in Taiwan (2020, 2021) and Ode to Lines at HD Galerie, Paris (2024).
Her practice centers on the line — obsessive, repetitive, and diaristic. What began in Beijing with Chinese ink and a Soviet nib pen has developed into a long-term investigation of time, memory, war, and belonging. While drawing remains central, Olasyuk expands this language into canvas, rice paper, embroidery, woodcut, resin, photography, and limited-edition zines. She also creates guided meditations connected to her works, transforming exhibitions into spaces of reflection and stillness, where art becomes both visual and experiential.
Positioned in dialogue with Agnes Martin, Pierre Soulages, and François Morellet, her work insists on its diaristic and lived dimension. Each series is less an isolated project than a continuation of an ongoing record, where repetition becomes a method of transformation.
Alongside her studio practice, Olasyuk has been invited as a scholar-artist at the USC–SJTU Institute of Cultural and Creative Industry (Shanghai), and has held residencies at Planta Alta and CRA Matadero in Madrid. She has collaborated with international brands including Peugeot and Vogue TV China, and regularly writes on diverse topics includng creativty, art communication, AI and more.
Statemnet
I work with the line as a form of ongoing notation — a way of recording change, both internal and external. Each line I draw is a mark of presence, repetition, and transformation. It registers shifts provoked by growth, rupture, memory, war, or simply the passage of time. The works are not illustrations but documents: visual diaries of lived intensity.
My practice is grounded in Chinese ink and a Soviet-era nib pen on paper — a minimal yet demanding medium that offers infinite variation within constraint. Over time, the lines begin to fragment, thicken, or slip under new layers. I often incorporate other materials — canvas, embroidery, resin, woodcut, or rice paper — not to decorate but to complicate the surface, to challenge its authority and invite multiplicity.
I work through dualities. Structure and chaos. Boredom and vitality. Simplicity and density. Each piece is a negotiation between these forces — not aiming for balance, but exposing their coexistence. This tension is central to my approach: I don’t seek resolution but resonance. The line becomes a site where contradiction can rest without being dissolved.
My art is both method and meditation — not in the sense of stillness, but as a ritual of return. I return to the line daily. Each work is a snapshot along this path. Together, they form a long-form research into perception, persistence, and the emotional architecture of abstraction.
Solo exhibitions:
2025: “The Breath” Zeto art gallery, Paris, France
2024: “Ode to Lines” HD galerie. Paris, France
2024: “Confluence” MSPACE. Paris, France
2021: “Chiseling the Light with Ink” Taipei, Taiwan
2020: “In Between” Galerie Grand Siecle, Taipei, Taiwan
2016: " Межа/грань/border" Khmelnitsky Region Art Museum. Khmelnitsky, Ukraine
2016: «Ink Mark» JuEr space. Beijing, China
2015: "Complex Simplicity" auto studio. Beijing, China
2015: “The Calling” at DARA gallery. Beijing, China
2014: "Monochrome World" Kogo art gallery, Hangzhou, China
2014: "Three Steps" BIFT park, Beijing Institute of Fashion Technology. Beijing, China
Two/Three-Person Exhibition:
2018: “Inversion” Clerkenwell Space, Beijing, China
2018: “Ritual” Sky Moca Gallery. Beijing, China
2016: "Sinergia" Sky Art Foundation, Kyiv, Ukraine
Selected group exhibitions:
2025: “Shelter” Galleri Christoffer Egelund,. Copenhagen, Denmark
2025: “weiblich / ukrainisch / emigriert”, Atelier-Salon, Landau, Germany
2021: “Linear” JH Gallery. Shanghai, China
2021: “Unknown Reality” Baolong Art Center, organized by Shanghai Jiaotong University and ICCI Art Valley, Shanghai, China
2021: “Linear” Longkong Art Museum. Beijing, China
2020: “Return to the forest” Dongyan Mountain Forest Recreational Area. Taoyuan City, Taiwan
2019: “Without Ink” Art Tianjin Contemporary Ink Exhibition, Tianjin, China
2019: “A Piece of cotton paper” JiuCeng Art Museum, Beijing, China
2019: “Reconstruction” Aotu space, Beijing, China
2019: “Grey silence” Tong Gallery, Beijing, China
2018: “Investigation” Klerkenwell Space, Beijing, China
2018: “Ritual” Skymoka Gallery, Beijing, China
2018: “Spring Luster” Skymoka Gallery, Beijing, China
2017: Curitiba Biennale ’17 «Vibration» Chinese contemporary art exhibition. Curitiba, Brazil
2017: "Non-objective image" OCT space of Manufacturing Cultural. Shenzhen, China
2017: "Investigation" Cheng Gallery. Beijing, China
2016: "Art Actually" 11Gallery. Beijing, China
2016: “The Six Jinan International Photography Exhibition” Jinan, China
2016: Group exhibition «Fire Wall» No Gate Gallery. Beijing, China
2016: «A Great Event is in the Making. But No One Has Noticed» at Intelligentsia gallery. Beijing. China
2015: Group exhibition of Ukrainian and Kyrgyzstan artists, at Sharpen Studio. Beijing, China
2015: «The Collisions inside the Secret Garden at the Museum of Innocence» Workjam coworking space. Beijing, China
2014: "Semiotic preoccupations: objects, signs and symbols" Intelligentsia gallery. Beijing, China
In collection:
Shanghai Jiaotong University
Sky Art Foundation (Kyiv, Ukraine)
11Gallery (Beijing, China)
Cheng Center for Contemporary Art (Beijing, China)
Works held in private collections around China, Taiwan, Ukraine, France, the UK, Italy, the USA, etc.
Art Fairs:
2020: Any Future - Emerging Artists Fair in Taipei. Taiwna
2020: Art Kaoshiung, Taipei. Taiwan
Residency/ Programs:
2025: Residency at Saline Royale at Arc-et-Senans, France
2022: Residency at Planta Alta and CRA Matadero (Madrid) with the support of Artists at Risk and TEJA.
2021: Visiting Artist at ART VALLEY PROGRAM, The USC-SJTU Institute of Cultural and Creative Industry(ICCI), ( a joint institute between the University of Southern California (USC) and Shanghai Jiao Tong University (SJTU) )
Contact
email: a.olasyuk@icloud.com
wechat: olasyuk_a