Artists' awards winner has solo exhibition in atrium

The Westmeath Artists Awards overall winner Olena Karpenko is displaying her solo exhibition Reflections in the Atrium, Mullingar in an exhibition until Friday February 3.

Olena lives in Athlone and is a resident artist at the Abbey Road Artists Studios. The residency was awarded to her as part of the Westmeath Artists Award along with a €1,500 bursary to help her develop new work.

Olena works as an abstract artist, and creates a variety of contemporary art pieces including paintings and drawings.

Through abstraction, she seeks to symbolise and reflect subconscious images and symbols to capture emotions at a particular moment of time.

Olena has a masters degree in art and design from the Lviv Polytechnic National University.

She has had work exhibited in Ireland and Ukraine, and recently her work was included in the first all-Ukrainian triennial Abstract Art 2022 exhibition, curated by Victor Babak, and in the Westmeath Artists Awards Exhibition, curated by guest selector Sarah Searson.

Speaking at the launch, Westmeath arts officer Miriam Mulrennan said: “It is a pleasure to see Olena Karpenko launch her exhibition Reflections at the Atrium here in Mullingar. We are delighted, in particular, to see artists choosing to develop their work and artistic profession within the county, and to offer artists a means of progressing in their career.

“Last December we launched the inaugural Westmeath Artists Awards and this hugely varied display of local talent allowed us a view of the thriving artistic talent in Westmeath. We are excited to see more artists choosing the Atrium as a space for their work in 2023.”