Halyna Nazarenko

Biography

Halyna Nazarenko was born on November 18, 1968 in Petrykivka. She started painting since childhood - her mother, who dreamed of being an artist herself but did not have such an opportunity, sat down with her daughter from an early age and drew with pencils. In general, there were many people in Nazarenko’s family with a talent for painting - the creative streak was passed down through the generations.

In 1980-1984, she studied at the Petrykivka Children’s Art School named after Tetiana Patia, where her teacher was Fedir Panko. In 1984-1988, she studied at the Myrhorod Ceramic College named after Hohol. in 1989, she started working as an apprentice at the Experimental Shop of the Dnipropetrovs’k Art and Production Plant and stayed there for many years. In 1990-2011, she worked as an artist of Petrykivka painting at the Petrykivka Folk Art Center.

She is a member of the National Union of Masters of Folk Art of Ukraine (2015) and a member of the Association of Contemporary Art of Morestin (France, 2013).

Artistic Practice

Halyna Nazarenko is one of the most active and well-known contemporary Petrykivka artists. She has created over two thousand works on paper, canvas, wood, glass, and dozens of painted interiors.

In her individual style, she combines lightness and color saturation, folk naivety and professional artistry. Among her favorite subjects are the Ukrainian village, Christmas, Easter, the Intercession, angels, flowers, birds, and the Cossack Mamai. In recent years, she has increasingly turned to religious themes: she painted the interiors of St. George’s Church in Kyiv (2011), the Church of the Intercession in the village of Shevchenkove in the Kyiv region (2014), and the Bread Barn of the National Conservation Area “St. Sophia of Kyiv” (2017). She also painted the walls of the Ukrainian Cultural Center in Paris.

She believes that it is important to distinguish between exhibition works and souvenirs, and she consistently adheres to this in her practice: “Souvenirs are not going to go anywhere and they are needed. But exhibition works are different.”

Recognition

Participant in more than 60 collective and about 25 solo exhibitions in Ukraine and abroad: France, Bulgaria, the USA, Canada, Georgia, Belarus, Kuwait, Uzbekistan, China, Turkmenistan, Spain, Greece, the Netherlands, and Japan. in 2011, she held the first exhibition of Petrykivka painting in Paris in the last 25 years.