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.
Represented by Asortymentna Kimnata.
Member of Ukrainian Women Photographers Organization, MYPH.
Member of Ukrainian Women Photographers Organization, MYPH.
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:
2025 - Pla(t)form. Portfolio viewing. Fotomuseum Winterthur. Nominated by Kateryna Radchenko. (Winterthur, Switzerland)
2023 - Fresh Eyes Talent 2023 by GUP magazine (nominated) (Amsterdam, Netherlands)
RESIDENCY:
2025 - Residency "Silent Names: Anda, Hillel and Others" organised by Pochen and Asortymentna kimnata (Chemnitz, Germany)
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)
PERSONAL EXHIBITIONS:
2025 - "The Phenomenon of Vampirism: Traces on the Postmodern Podil" in Balkonna gallery (Kyiv, Ukraine)
2025 - "Field of interpretation" in Istoriya space (Lviv, Ukraine)
2024 - "On the oppressed" in neunkubikmeter (Regensburg, Germany)
2023 - "Want to know a secret" in Galerie Nemo (Eckernförde, Germany)
2023 - "Verification of the paranormal phenomenon of vampirism in the context of Carpathian mythmaking" in Asortymentna Kimnata, (Ivano-Frankivsk, Ukraine)
2020 - "Want to know a secret" in the Asortymentna Kimnata (Ivano-Frankivsk, Ukraine)
GROUP EXHIBITIONS:
2026 - "Six Women" in Asortymentna Kimnata (Ivano-Frankivsk, Ukraine)
2025 - "Stuffs and things" open studio (Lviv, Ukraine)
2025 - "Unsaid" in artist-run space Draft Spaska (Kyiv, Ukraine)
2025 - "The frogs in the walls don't sing" in Asortymentna Kimnata (Ivano-Frankivsk, Ukraine)
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 - "One Day" in The Ukrainian Culture Center (Stockholm, Sweden)
2023 - "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 - "New MYTHOLOGY" in Yermilov Center (Kharkiv, Ukraine)
2023 - "Norm" in the apartment of artist Nikita Kadan and curator and artist Clemens Poole (Kyiv, Ukraine)
2023 - "MYPH 5 years anniversary" (Baroque VR Gallery, Ukraine)
2023 - "Behind a tree is a tree" in Asortymentna Kimnata, (Ivano-Frankivsk, Ukraine)
2022 - "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 - "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 - "Beauty of Ukraine / That which is at risk" in Gallery Art Factory Flox (Kirshau, Germany)
2022 - "In the name of freedom" in Chausee 36 Berlin (Berlin, Germany)
2021 - "100 women" (Ukrainian women photographers organization) in Municipal Gallery (Kharkiv, Ukraine)
2021 - charity online auction of documentary photography "Fixation"
2021 - ''Mud'' in Detector Gallery (Ivano-Frankivsk, Ukraine)
2020 - "Anticipation+Immunity" in MSUMK (Lutsk, Ukraine)
2020 - MYPH graduates online show
2020 - online group exhibition "Those alone" visual diaries during quarantine in the gallery COME IN (Kharkiv, Ukraine)
2020 - group 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)