Olga Yukhno's gallery show opens on Thursday night at Anastasia & Friends Gallery and will be up throughout the month of September
artist Olga Yukhno
Art is a trade embodied by many around the world; Olga Yukhno clearly displays this.
Olga Yukhno is an artist from Pyatigorsk, Russia, and is the current Gallery Director at The University of South Carolina’s McMaster Gallery. It is back in her native country where she began her journey as an artist.
As a student at Pyatigorsk State Linguistic University, Yukhno received a Bachelor’s degree in Linguistics and a Master’s degree in Education and Psychology. However, she continued to pursue her love for art.
Yukhno focused a lot on enameling, using metal work tools that her father had made for her. She fell in love with Juxtaposition within her art and continued to show this throughout her work. While in Russia, Yukhno apprenticed under distinguished artist and enamellist Nikolai Vdovkin. It was here where Yukhno experienced some of her most formative years as an artist.
In 2008, Yukhno moved to the United States where she continued her journey as an artist. She realized that she no longer had the resources needed to continue enameling, and decided to expand into new mediums. Yukhno loves making complex and intricate pieces; “I love detail. I think I’m not capable of making something simple.” This was one factor that led her to the decision of expanding into 3D-figurative work.
Yukhno says, “It was a very intimidating process for me because it just seemed to be so complicated and intricate, and I was not even sure I was capable of that. So, I was able to take a class and it changed my, it changed my world because I tried it and I loved it!”
Yukhno has been working with 3D-figurative art for two years now. It is in this work that she finally feels as if she has found her voice.
Yukhno’s degree in psychology greatly influences her current work and brings about pivotal questions relating to the human mind. She correlates her interest in humanity and human psychology with her figurative sculptures. It is in this that she will be introducing her first 3D-figurative art exhibition, What Moves Us?
What Moves Us? is a solo art exhibition hosted by Anastasia & Friends, displaying Yukhno’s 3D artwork. The show will open on Thursday, September 6, at 6:00pm and will last until 9:00pm. The theme of this show is the motivation of people, where Yukhno displays the questions that rest in her mind relating to the motivation of humanity through her artwork. She enjoys thinking and analyzing different aspects of human psychology, and this can be seen through her intro exhibition.
Yukhno is very fascinated with denial and how it works. She finds it interesting how we sometimes recognize when we are in denial, yet we choose to not see it. She also finds interest in how society influences us as individuals.
Yukhno says, “I’m extremely interested in the influence of society on us and how we influence on each other, and the issues of judgment … it’s fascinating how some people strive to resist it, but most people don’t, and it makes me wonder why and how, and what makes us give up or what makes us just keep plowing through, refusing to give up.”
These are the ideas that can be expected to be seen through Yukhno’s 3D-figurative sculptures found in the What Moves Us? exhibition.
This is just one of many things Yukhno has planned. While she will continue with sculpture, she also wants to expand into instillations and collaborative work, bringing in more ideas of societal influences, but also of political and social issues.
Be on the lookout for this talented artist. One can expect more to come from Yukhno in the future.
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