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Dombrovska Olena
Olena Dombrovska’s “Self-harm” is a raw, intimate video work exploring embodiment, pain, and self-perception.
A naked woman sits on a chair in an empty room, repeatedly touching, pressing, and scratching her skin — as if examining or punishing herself. Her arm is wrapped in a black medical brace, and she wears a bracelet marked “Bakhmut 1942/22”, a subtle but powerful reference to war, trauma, and endurance.
Her nudity here is not erotic but vulnerable and honest. The artist shows an unidealized body — with folds, scars, and imperfections — challenging conventional representations of beauty and femininity. It becomes a site of struggle and reflection, carrying both personal and collective pain.
The long, static duration (over 7 minutes) reinforces a ritualistic, obsessive rhythm — somewhere between pain, cleansing, and self-awareness. Through this repetition, Dombrovska reminds us that the body is both living matter and a witness to memory, trauma, and survival.
Olena Dombrovska (b. 1985, Odesa) is a Ukrainian artist and co-founder of the artistic organization KNO | Kyiv Non Objective. She works across painting, drawing, installation, and object-based art. Her practice explores the interplay of line and light, abstract forms as emotional images, and the ways collective memory and history shape the perception of art.
She studied at the Grekov Odesa Art School (2002–2007) and graduated from the National Academy of Fine Arts and Architecture in Kyiv (2009–2014), specializing in monumental painting. Since 2009, she has participated in exhibitions and projects in Ukraine and abroad.
Her works have been presented internationally — from the Institute of Contemporary Art (MECA, Portland, USA) to galleries in Paris, Benevento, Melbourne, Cincinnati, and Ontario. In Ukraine, she took part in Kyiv Art Week, the Festival of Young Ukrainian Artists at Mystetskyi Arsenal, as well as projects at M17, Lavra Gallery, ILKO, Dzyga, and Voloshyn Gallery.
Selected solo shows include “Myth” (Markoff Gallery, Odesa, 2012), “Before the Image” (Invogue#Art, Odesa, 2018), and “Spectacles” (Lavra Gallery, Kyiv, 2021). In 2023, Dombrovska’s works were featured in the international exhibition “The Clouds Will Dissolve” at Villa Böhm (Germany), reflecting on Ukrainian women artists’ experiences during wartime.
Through her projects, she reinterprets archival photographs and transforms them into abstract structures, dissolving narratives into traces and silhouettes. Her art invites viewers to confront memory and trauma while leaving space for individual perception and imagination.
She currently lives and works in Kyiv.
Artworks Dombrovska Olena
