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- Event of Collective Memory 2025–2026
Kristina Otchich-Cherniak
Event of Collective Memory attempts to depict an event that one remembers but cannot fully reconstruct due to the absence of clear details.
For the first time in her practice, the artist worked with something materially present yet undefined, creating volume with a meaning that is shaped by the viewer’s perception.
The “event” itself does not have a fixed moment in time; it can be described as something that existed before, during, and will continue to exist afterward.
Kristina Otchich-Cherniak (b. 1991, Kyiv, Ukraine) is a Ukrainian artist based in Kyiv.
She began her artistic path in 2003 when she entered the State Art Secondary School named after T. H. Shevchenko, studying in the painting department. Later she studied at the National Academy of Culture and Arts Management (NAKKKIM), specializing as an art historian and expert. She graduated with a Bachelor’s degree with honors in 2014.
Following this, she continued her studies at the University of Wrocław, where she pursued a Master’s degree in Art History, studying in Polish. She returned to Kyiv in 2015.
For many years she taught painting in a private studio and provided consultations for emerging artists. In 2021 she decided to shift her focus toward conceptual art, exploring her own identity through artistic practice.
In her search for a personal visual language, she works in mixed media, combining graphic and painterly materials.
Her practice includes media such as gouache, pencil, embroidery, small sculpture (Keraplast), paper, and canvas. She prepares her canvases herself — from selecting the fabric to gluing and priming — considering this process an essential beginning of each artwork.
The foundation of her work lies in a sense of outrage. Rather than inspiration, she is driven by disturbance and concern. Many of her narratives emerge from issues such as inequality, war, existential questions, humanism, feminism, philosophy, and religion from a scientific perspective.
Environmental issues also occupy an important place in her practice, including animal rights and the destructive consequences of human activity and war. Each work is rooted in a story, a theoretical reflection, or a documented act of injustice.