"Keyholder" Painting

I am Olena Kayinska, an artist based in Lviv, Ukraine. I work in the genre of intellectual primitivism, combining simplified symbolic forms with philosophical and psychological inquiry. My artistic practice began in 2012.

My artistic research centers on trauma and post-traumatic recovery, psychosomatic healing, and the inner depth and complexity of human experience shaped by our awareness of mortality. I explore the tension between resilience and vulnerability, often working with ideas of inner conflict and psychological trauma.

Contemporary life demands endurance: we learn to defend ourselves, compete for space, and struggle for survival. In this state, tenderness and fragility are often pushed out of sight, yet they persist beneath the surface.

I am drawn to what remains hidden — the sensitive, vulnerable self that originates in childhood and retreats into the subconscious in order to survive. I see this hidden layer not as a weakness, but as a source of beauty and truth.

Recently, my practice has also turned toward tranquility. I think of it as an inner river: a state of being that allows a person to feel, observe, and exist without armor. What does it mean to remain oneself across time, to witness life’s flow — joy and grief, presence and loss — while staying connected to that quiet core? My practice seeks this space of attentive stillness, where healing and self-recognition become possible.

I have participated in more than 100 exhibitions, contemporary art festivals, and artist residencies, and have presented 19 solo projects. I have also worked as a curator of group exhibitions, artist residencies, and relocation programs supporting artists at risk.

My paintings are held in museum and private collections in Ukraine, Poland, Finland, Germany, the United Kingdom, the Netherlands, Slovakia, Italy, France, Hungary, the United States, Turkey, and the United Arab Emirates.rld, fantastic forests, filled with symbolic images and archetypical symbols, inhabited with mysterious creatures, each of which provides a guide to the final destination – our heart. My aim is to make people happier.

My paintings show the endlessness of obvious and unobvious relationships in this world with the help of mysterious storylines with the metaphysical sense. Being the guide between the worlds, I mix reality and magic in a genuine meditative form of my witchcraft.