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 and maintains a documentary photo diary. Her practice is centered around fiction, documentary, and post-truth, which is a logical continuation of her journalistic job.
By manipulating the viewer to create confusion, she reflects on the closely related subjects of archive and memory.
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.
Olesia lives and works in Ivano-Frankivsk and Lviv, Ukraine.
EDUCATION:
2019-2020 - School of conceptual and art photography "MYPH"
2019 - Visual storytelling school (NGO Center for Visual Education in
Lutsk)
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:
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 - 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)