About Oksana:
I am a Ukrainian immigrant and a self-taught visual artist. I came to New York with only my mother, and everything was new and difficult. With my education in business — I hold both a bachelor’s and a master’s degree, and I studied in New York — I could have continued down a traditional career path. I worked in marketing, sales, and events, and for a time I held corporate roles in New York.
But art kept pulling me back. I painted after long days, on weekends, and whenever I could. Eventually, I chose art as my life’s work. It was not the easy path, but it was the true one.
My paintings are full of the themes that move me: angels, animals, abstracts, cities, trees, and family trees. My angels are closest to my heart, from small ornaments and cards to larger canvases full of light. My animals are painted in soft pastel colors, in acrylic, often created for nurseries and homes. My abstracts are textured, layered, and alive, sometimes painted with knives, sometimes shaped with splashes of paint that find their own form. I also embroider on canvas, threading my Ukrainian roots into my art, and I often share this work at Ukrainian festivals across the U.S.
In 2019 I showed at Art Expo New York. The following year, I married my husband and soon became a mother of two during the pandemic. My painting slowed, but it never stopped. I created smaller works, embroidery pieces to support Ukraine, and helped other artists through UAartsy.com, which I founded. Many of those works were sold or donated to raise funds and awareness for Ukraine.
Alongside my art, I have also supported the broader Ukrainian cultural community. I helped manage the Ukrainian Drama Theater in New York, and I’ve been actively involved in dozens of Ukrainian events every year across New York and Connecticut — exhibitions, festivals, and community gatherings that celebrate artists and culture. Supporting other Ukrainian artists has always been central to my work, both through community events and through UAartsy, where I’ve created a platform to help them reach wider audiences.
In 2025 I exhibited at the Mystic Art Festival, marking my return to larger works and public shows. Today, I welcome commissions and continue to explore angels, abstracts, and new directions in my painting. My art grows with me, carrying the strength of my Ukrainian heritage and the life I am building here in America.
About my Art:
Everyone sees the world differently. I see it in colors — vivid, layered, alive — and I bring those colors to canvas. Painting is how I translate my emotions, my dreams, and the way I move through life.
I work mainly in acrylics, but I use many surfaces, tools, and techniques. My paintings are a mix of the contemporary and the abstract. I use drip techniques, palette knives, textures, and bright colors, letting the paint speak in its own way. Dripping and splashing feels natural to me because it mirrors my character — spontaneous, expressive, always in motion. No two strokes are ever the same.
When I paint, I move between easel, table, and floor, letting the process take over. Music is always with me; it guides my hands and body as if I were dancing around the canvas. My movements are trance-like, allowing me to lose myself until the painting becomes its own rhythm, its own music. Even the smallest gestures matter — the final splash can make a piece sing or change it completely. It’s the same as life: we can work carefully for days, but sometimes one moment reshapes everything. The important part is not to give up. If something fails, you start fresh, with a new canvas, and create something even stronger.
Travel also feeds my creativity. Every trip opens my eyes again — architecture, nature, the colors of the tropics, bridges, and, most of all, the people I meet. Different cultures bring new ways of seeing the world, and I try to capture those visions in my work. That’s why every painting feels unique. Even if the tools are the same, the emotions never are.
I’ve always been inspired by Jackson Pollock, whose freedom and energy shaped my own approach. But I continue to develop my own technique, to explore new surfaces and new tools. My goal is not only to create vibrant, textured paintings but to spark reflection — to provoke thoughts, stir emotions, and remind people that every life, like every painting, is a masterpiece in progress.
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Cell: 347.523.1226
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Exhibitions:
2025 Mystic Outdoor Art Festival (Juried), Mystic CT
2019 Solo Exhibition & Silent Auction, Klimat Lounge NYC
2019 Fine Art Trade Show, Artexpo - NYC
2018 Theater Performance & Group Exhibition, Ukrainian National Home
2018 Group Exhibition, The Sheen Center for Thought & Culture
2017 Group Exhibition, Koza Bar - Ukraine
2016 Group Exhibition, Greenpoint Gallery - NYC
2016 Group Exhibition - Fundraiser, Franciscan Community Center - NYC
2015-2016 Live Painting, "Cielo" Times Square Jazz Bar - NYC
2015 Group Exhibition - Fundraiser, Old Stone House - Brooklyn, NY
2015 Art Show and Competition, Franciscan Community Center
Awards:
2019 Fine Art Trade Show, Artexpo, New York, NY - “Rising Artist” award
2015 An Art Show and Competition, Franciscan Community Center, New York, NY - 2nd place winner
Collections:
Private collection, New York, NY
Private Collection, Tucson, AZ
Private collection, Twentynine Palms, CA
Private collection, Byfield, MA
Private collection, Boston, MA
Private collection, Chicago, IL
Private collection, San Juan, PR
Private collection, Atlanta, GA
Private collection, Kiev, Ukraine
Private collection, Ternopil, Ukraine