Face to the Pain

Krystyna Melnyk is a Ukrainian artist, who works with concepts such as the classical and the sacred through imagery. Her creative method is an attempt to find an approach to experiencing the sacred.

Melnyk's art explores the dual power of images, aiming to convey the sensation of the sacred through the concept of the suffering body. She perceives her works as icons, incorporating levkas, a traditional material for icon painting.

The artist was born in Melitopol, Ukraine, in 1993. Her early foundational training in the arts took place at the Melitopol High College of Culture (2010-2014) and continued at the National Academy of Fine Arts and Architecture (2014-2018). She also attended the Contemporary Art Course at the Kyiv Academy of Media Arts.

In 2019, she completed a course on video art at Viktor Marushchenko's School of Photography, curated by Alina Kleytman. In 2022, she was nominated for the Pinchuk Art Prize.

Krystyna Melnyk's paintings have been featured in numerous exhibitions, including those at Kyiv Acadamy of Media Arts, The Naked Room Gallery, and Voloshyn Gallery, among other venues. 

The artist has created a substantial body of work, with titles that incorporate sacred terminology, such as "Altarpiece". These titles follow a sequence of Roman numerals and are part of a larger project the artist has been developing recently—a grand altar.

Krystyna Melnyk's original paintings include "Altarpiece I" (2023), "Altarpiece II" (2023), "The Bones That Will Become Garden" (2023), "Hidden" (2022), and many more. Krystyna Melnyk's paintings for sale are available at the auction on the UFDA website. 

Inspired and influenced by Georges Bataille and particularly his text "Histoire de l'œil", the artist seeks to convey a sense of the sacred through the idea of the suffering body, as described by the philosopher. Melnyk engages with the world of sacred feelings not only metaphysically: the artist incorporates levkas and oil into her works. Traditionally used in iconography, these materials provide greater durability to the pieces, which often require extended periods to create.

Since the onset of the full-scale invasion, Krystyna increasingly identifies herself as an iconographer rather than an artist. Even her early works were tied to reflections on the perception of war's past. In those pieces, the artist contemplated why World War II occurred. At the time, it was difficult to imagine such events repeating. Now, Krystyna's body of work appears prophetic.