Olesia Saienko is a photographer and a visual storyteller from Ukraine. Holder of a Master's degree in Psychology. Started to work as a photojournalist and freelancer in 2017. Olesia is engaged in documentary and conceptual photography. Moreover, in her projects, she goes beyond photography, working with video, installations, and art books.
Her practice is centered around fiction, documentary, and post-truth, which is a logical continuation of her journalistic job. She also works with themes of transformation and death, occasionally incorporating irony.
An archivist and a trickster in one person.
Member of Ukrainian Women Photographers Organization, MYPH.
Member of Ukrainian Women Photographers Organization, MYPH.
Her photos have been published in PHROOM, Reporters.media, F-Stop magazine, Kiosk of democracy, Liberation, GUP Magazine.
Represented by Asortymentna Kimnata.
EDUCATION:
2019-2020 - School of conceptual and art photography "MYPH"
2019 - Visual storytelling school (NGO Center for Visual Education in Lutsk)
2019 - Internship at Reporters.media on Media's inter-editorial JEP exchange program
AWARDS:
2023 - Fresh Eyes Talent 2023 by GUP magazine (nominated) (Amsterdam, Netherlands)
RESIDENCY:
2024 - Residency at Künstlerhaus Andreas-Stadel, "CreArt" project (Regensburg, Ukraine)
2023 - Residency at Hata-Maisterna "When was the story interrupted?" (Babyn, Ukraine)
2022 - Residency "otte1" (Eckernförde, Germany)
2019 - Workshop "Our Future" by FROH! (Severodonetsk, Lutsk, Ukraine)
EXHIBITIONS:
2024 - Egg, Nut, Scream, and Chorus during Truth to justice conference in Silent Green Kulturquartier (Berlin, Ukraine)
2024 - Egg, Nut, Scream, and Chorus in Țol Artist Run Space (Chisinau, Moldova)
2024 - Practices of recognition. Another viewing attempt in Mala Gallery of Mystetskiy Arsenal (Kyiv, Ukraine)
2024 - “100 Women” project initiated by the Ukrainian women photographers organization in Ins Blaue gallery (Remscheid, Germany)
2024 - personal exhibition "On the oppressed" in neunkubikmeter (Regensburg, Germany)
2024 - group exhibition "One Day" in The Ukrainian Culture Center (Stockholm, Sweden)
2023 - group exhibition "About common and separate" (MYPH) in Asortymentna Kimnata (Ivano-Frankivsk, Ukraine)
2023 - "On the periphery of the war" (The fifth edition of Kyiv Biennial) in Asortymentna Kimnata (Ivano-Frankivsk, Ukraine)
2023 - exhibition and charity auction "soundless till the point of deafness" in NAOMA (Kyiv, Ukraine)
2023 - "if you stare long into the void" in Asortymentna Kimnata (Ivano-Frankivsk, Ukraine)
2023 - personal exhibition "Want to know a secret" in Galerie Nemo (Eckernförde, Germany)
2023 - "New MYTHOLOGY" in Yermilov Center (Kharkiv, Ukraine)
2023 - group exhibition "Norm" in the apartment of artist Nikita Kadan and curator and artist Clemens Poole (Kyiv, Ukraine)
2023 - group exhibition "MYPH 5 years anniversary" (Baroque VR Gallery, Ukraine)
2023 - personal exhibition "Verification of the paranormal phenomenon of vampirism in the context of Carpathian mythmaking" in Asortymentna Kimnata, (Ivano-Frankivsk, Ukraine)
2023 - group exhibition "Behind a tree is a tree" in Asortymentna Kimnata, (Ivano-Frankivsk, Ukraine)
2022 - group exhibition "MYPH. Mykolaiv young photography" in Kulturzentrum Korotan during Rotlicht Festival (Vienna, Austria)
2022 - duo exhibition with Katia Yermolaeva "Imagine" in Otte 1 (Eckernförde, Germany)
2022 - group exhibition "The wind of change" in Klaipeda Cultural Communications Center (KKKC) (Klaipeda, Lithuania)
2022 - group exhibition with Ukrainian women photographers organization at the Art Compensa (Vilnius, Lithuania)
2022 - group exhibition "Beauty of Ukraine / That which is at risk" in Gallery Art Factory Flox (Kirshau, Germany)
2022 - group exhibition "In the name of freedom" in Chausee 36 Berlin (Berlin, Germany)
2021 - group exhibition "100 women" (Ukrainian women photographers organization) in Municipal Gallery (Kharkiv, Ukraine)
2021 - charity online auction of documentary photography "Fixation"
2021 - group exhibition ''Mud'' in Detector Gallery (Ivano-Frankivsk, Ukraine)
2020 - personal exhibition "Want to know a secret" in the Asortymentna Kimnata (Ivano-Frankivsk, Ukraine)
2020 - group project "Anticipation+Immunity" in MSUMK (Lutsk, Ukraine)
2020 - group exhibition MYPH graduates online show
2020 - online exhibition "Those alone" visual diaries during quarantine in the gallery COME IN (Kharkiv, Ukraine)
2020 - exhibition from the project The Print Swap (by Feature Shoot) at Berlin Blue Gallery (Berlin, Germany)
2019 - Photo Kyiv Fair 2019 (section "Ukrainian street photography") (Kyiv, Ukraine)
2019 - "Stop Frame" at the Green Theater (within the Odessa International Film Festival with the assistance of the UCF) (Odesa, Ukraine)