The "People Who Became Trees" Series

Olia Yeriemieieva is a Ukrainian artist whose creative work delves into the subjects of the body, mortality, and sexuality, utilizing mediums such as photography, graphics, painting, and print publications.

Summary of Olia Yeriemieieva

Olia Yeriemieieva is an artist whose work delves into the subjects of the body, mortality, loss, and memory, using mediums like photography, painting, and print. Her art is marked by a profound exploration of the fear of loss, where she captures ephemeral moments and turns absence into a form of resilience, influenced by the impact of war and her own experiences.

Biography of Olia Yeriemieieva

Olia Yeriemieieva is a multidisciplinary artist, born in 1997 in Kyiv. Her work engages with themes of corporeality, death, loss, and memory.

Between 2012 and 2016, she studied graphic design at the College of Kyiv National University of Technology and Design, where she developed a strong foundation in visual arts. After completing her bachelor’s degree in 2018, she further honed her skills at the Kyiv Academy of Media Arts, expanding her artistic repertoire.

The artist currently resides and works in Kyiv, where she continues to create impactful works that draw from her personal experiences and the socio-political environment surrounding her. 

Olia Yeriemieieva’s Famous Paintings: Capturing Loss, Memory, and the Fragility of Life

The artist works with photography, video, graphics, and printed media. She actively incorporates such mediums as watercolor, paper, pen, marker, fabric, sticks etс.

Among Olia Yeriemieieva’s original paintings are “Dead” (2024), “Variants of Vases from Different Body Parts” (2023), “To the Innocent Victims of the Aerial Bombardment of Kyiv on the Night of May 11, 1943 Tombstone, at the Lukianivskyi Cemetery” (2023), “Sewn People” (2023), “Transformation” (2023), “People That Became Trees. Somewhere in the Bykivnia’s Woods” (2023), paintings from the “Attempts of Returning the Body” Series (2024) including paintings “Corpse of the Tree” (2024) and “Autopsy” (2024), the “People-Trees” Series (2023) and the “Rest in Peace, It Won’t Happen Again” Series (2023).

These Yeriemieieva’s paintings for sale are available at auction on the UFDA website.  

Olia Yeriemieieva’s Art Style

Olia Yeriemieieva’s art mainly focuses on the fear of loss and the effort to preserve what remains or reimagine what has been lost, influenced by the deaths of close friends during their youth. This theme extends to their contemplation of fleeting memories and fragile connections, often portrayed with a sense of urgency. 

The loss is perceived not only as an end but as a transformative process, where rethinking and materializing absence becomes a form of resilience. War, as a symbol of loss, deeply informs their practice, particularly through the experience of temporary displacement and the fear of erasure.