Olena Sem b. 1980, Kropyvnytsky

“I paint the space between who we are and who we perform — where the mask slips and something more fragile appears.”

Olena Sem is a contemporary painter exploring the space between figuration and abstraction. Her work examines identity as performance — shaped by gender roles and societal expectations. Placed in theatrical poses or wearing costume-like elements, her figures exist between performer and persona.

Through gestural brushwork, distortion, and layered oil surfaces, she reveals the tension between authenticity and appearance, amplifying a sense of the grotesque to access something more fragile and real. Drawing on Baroque drama and contemporary culture, her figures inhabit theatrical, unstable spaces where vulnerability, ambiguity, and transformation emerge.