Biography
Alena Olasyuk is a Ukrainian artist based in Paris. After studying Art and Journalism at the Beijing Institute of Fashion Technology, she lived and worked in Beijing for twelve years before relocating to Europe, spending time in Vienna and Paris. Her work has been exhibited internationally, including in China, Taiwan, Ukraine, France, and at the Curitiba Biennale in Brazil (2017). Recent solo exhibitions include Ode to Lines at HD Galerie, Paris (2024), and two solo exhibitions in Taiwan (2020, 2021).
Olasyuk’s practice centers on the line as a long-term record of change. Working primarily with Chinese ink and a nib pen on paper, she repeats the act of drawing lines daily, allowing small variations to accumulate over time. Through this persistent process, the line becomes a visual diary tracing shifts in time, place, and personal experience—reflecting themes such as memory, displacement, war, and belonging. Repetition in her work does not produce sameness but gradual transformation.
Alongside her visual work, Olasyuk develops parallel research through writing and sound. Her ongoing series of limited-edition “Little Books” combines drawings, texts, and audio elements, including guided meditations connected to specific artworks. These projects extend the practice beyond the image, transforming exhibitions and publications into spaces for reflection and sensory experience.
Her work engages in dialogue with traditions of minimal and conceptual abstraction associated with artists such as Agnes Martin, Pierre Soulages, and François Morellet, while maintaining a distinctly diaristic and process-driven approach. Each series forms part of a continuous investigation rather than a closed project—an evolving record where repetition becomes a method for observing change.
Statemnet
There are three ways to understand my work.
The first is visual.
How the viewer perceives it. How the artwork changes as we move closer or further away, or see it from a different angle. The vibration created through repetition. The way black ink reflects light. The calmness of predictable lines.
Within this calm surface there is also tension. Not pressure, but a subtle visual and emotional tension created by dualities — structure and chaos, simplicity and complexity, control and accident. The lines hold these opposites at the same time, creating a quiet charge that reveals itself slowly as the viewer spends time with the work.
The second layer is the process.
An almost performative act of drawing line after line. Capturing time through the repetitive rhythm of the body, through movements that are the same and yet different every time. Meditation, grounding, obsession. A daily, prayer-like routine that leaves a visible trace.
The third layer is personal — a diary.
The works reflect my inner changes. The state of the lines often mirrors emotional and psychological shifts. Each piece, each period, marks a point in my development and a specific state of attention and being.
Over time this diary has also become a long-term exploration of the line itself. By repeating this simple gesture across years and series, I observe how a minimal element can endlessly transform — through time, perception, materials, and personal experience.
These three layers exist simultaneously, though they are often read separately. For me they form a single body of work.
I see them as a structure — a framework that holds the work together. Within this structure I like to explore its edges, gently pushing its boundaries. Sometimes this means introducing other elements: sound, text, or guided meditations connected to the artworks. Sometimes it takes the form of small publications and experimental projects.
These additions are not separate from the work but extensions of the same investigation. They slightly shift the balance of the three layers, allowing the work to expand and reveal new possibilities.
In this way the practice continues to evolve — always returning to the line, while quietly testing how far it can unfold.
Solo exhibitions:
2026: “Lines of Meditation” b.box, Milan, Italy
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