- Main
- Artists' works
- Trophy No.2, No.3, No.4
Stein Olga
The wings of a mythological and biblical figure — the Seraph, embodying the highest rank of divine holiness and protection — are numbered and mounted on the wall as trophy-like objects. The wings are part of the project “Taxidermy Room”, first presented at a solo exhibition at 91gallery in Frankfurt.
Historically, “taxidermy rooms” preserved animal specimens as trophies — symbols of status and power that romanticized killing. The tradition of creating trophy rooms and trophy exhibitions became part of the formation of collective memory, turning war into an aesthetic object and distancing the viewer from reality and pain.
Olga Stein (1995) is a Ukrainian artist, curator, and co-founder of theSTEIN studio, a platform for interdisciplinary projects at the intersection of art, theatre, and social practice. Her artistic practice explores collective memory, identity, embodiment, and healing through the creative process.
She studied at the Kyiv National University of Technologies and Design and later completed a program in curatorial practices and new media. Since 2018, she has developed independent projects combining scenography, video art, installation, and performance.
Warm, open, and generous in communication, Stein says there is no competition in the art world for her — “it’s simply impossible.” In May 2021, she organized the first contemporary art fair at theSTEIN studio. In 2023, she presented “Earth”, an exhibition exploring humanity’s relationship with soil, nature, and roots amid destruction, combining video installation, textile, and scent as materials of memory.
In May–June 2024, Olga held her first solo exhibition, “You Feed Them, They Feed You. Nothing in Common.” The project, presented at the Odesa National Art Museum, used fermentation as a metaphor to explore how society digests itself.
In 2024, within theSTEIN studio, she realized the international project “Hostynets” (Gift), bringing together artists from Ukraine, Poland, and France around the themes of hospitality, migration, and cultural exchange. The project was presented in Paris, London, and Kyiv. At 91 Galerie in Frankfurt, Stein opened her solo exhibition “The Taxidermic Room”(Oct, 2024) exploring preservation — of memory, body, and home — as a quiet form of resistance to erasure.
In theatre, Stein designed the scenography for “Hedda Gabler” directed by Davyd Petrosian, the premiere was in summer 2025, exploring the tension between control and freedom through space, light, and the actors’ bodies. She has paused other theatre projects to focus on her upcoming solo exhibition, continuing her inquiry into female subjectivity, isolation, and interiority.
Her works have been exhibited at Voloshyn Gallery, Les Beaux-Arts de Paris, Le Dome (London), and KYIV ART WEEK.
Stein’s practice is a search for a shared space between art and life — where process prevails over outcome. She treats experience as material, transforming the personal into the collective, and the wound into a form of communication.