Sea of Gold Collage

Olga Ketling-Szemley was born in 1976 in Warsaw, Poland, to a family of artists (Stanislaw Hiszpanski and Maria Hiszpanska-Neumann). Her home was her academy of fine arts, as it has always been full of art students, professors, critics, and art lovers. She started to make her unusual, vibrant collages/mosaics in 2004. She is currently studying for her Master of Fine Art in Cambridge. Her technique is truly original, fruit of her fascination with ancient mosaic, paper collage (think: Matisse), and her own imagination. It consists of small paper pieces, torn or cut, forming a mosaic on gold-painted canvass, with addition of gold leaf, various small objects and acrylic paint. The effect is that of vibrant colour and surprising detail. Olga Ketling has exhibited in Italy, Poland, Algieria, France, and India. Her works are in numerous private collections, notably that of India's richest man, Mukesh Ambani. She is currently living in Cambridge, England. Her work draws on her travels as an endless source of inspiration, seldom direct, but the colours, smells, legends and art of a country translate themselves into her art.