Olena Yanko

Olena Yanko is a contemporary Ukrainian artist based in Kyiv whose work explores the emotional atmosphere of nature through color, rhythm, and movement.
Born in 1989 in Netishyn, Ukraine, she holds a Master’s degree in Architecture from Kyiv National University of Construction and Architecture. Her architectural background shapes her sensitivity to space, composition, and balance.

Olena creates expressive abstract landscapes inspired by nature and fleeting impressions of travel. Rather than depicting specific places, her paintings evoke the emotional memory of landscapes — shifting skies, open fields, wind, and light.

Her painting process is intuitive and spontaneous. Working with direct brushwork and expressive color fields, she allows the image to emerge gradually, inviting viewers to slow down, breathe, and reconnect with a sense of calm and inner space.

Alongside her studio practice, Olena also works in public art. She is the initiator and one of the co-founders of the international public art project Flowers for Hope, created in collaboration with American artist Trek Thunder Kelly. The project brings symbolic imagery inspired by nature into urban space, reflecting themes of dignity, solidarity, and the value of peace.

Her...

2013 — Master’s Degree in Architecture, Kyiv National University of Construction and Architecture, Kyiv, Ukraine

2012 — Bachelor’s Degree in Architecture, Kyiv National University of Construction and Architecture, Kyiv, Ukraine

2005 — Netishyn School of Arts, Art and Graphic Department, Netishyn, Ukraine

Personal exhibitions:
2005 - "My world in which I live", Taras Shevchenko Regional Library for Children, Khmelnytskyi, Ukraine.
2005 - "The Beauty of Life", Museum of Books and Printing of Ukraine, Kyiv, Ukraine.
Selected collective exhibitions:
2025 - Group exhibition "Creating Irpin" for the third anniversary of liberation, Lisova3, Irpin, Ukraine
2025 - Art project "Inside-Out", 31Artspace, Lviv, Ukraine (collaborative project with S. Sobol and L. Volkovynska)
2025 - collective exhibition "Our Borsch" as part of the art project "Soul of Ukraine", literary-memorial museum-apartment of P.G. Tychyna, Kyiv, Ukraine.
2024 - art exhibition of the art project "The World through the Eyes of Artists", P.G. Tychynas literary-memorial museum-apartment, Kyiv, Ukraine.
2024 - The final exhibition of the VIII Open Art Plein Air "Painted Irpin", Irpin Children's Art School named after Mykhailo Verikivskyi, Irpin, Ukraine.
2024 - "Bloom, Irpin - Blossom, Ukraine!", Park of Writers, Irpin, Ukraine.
2024 - "Meeting in the hole", NewArtStudio, Irpin, Ukraine.
2023 - "War and Peace",
", MODI ART&Wine gallery, Kyiv, Ukraine.
2023 - "My name is Ukraine", Former department store, Wittenberg, Germany.
2023 - "My name is Ukraine", St. Nicholas Churc...