Tamara Vakulenko

Artistic Practice

Tamara Vakulenko creates paintings on paper, canvas, fabric, wood, and metal, and paints interiors. She works in a wide range of sizes - from miniature souvenirs to painting interiors and facades covering tens of square meters. She prefers monumental works, which she creates mostly together with her husband.

Among the couple’s joint projects are the interiors of Kharkiv Boarding School No. 13 (1988), the dining room of the Lyon Higher Polytechnic School in France (1996), and the hall of the National Union of Folk Art Masters of Ukraine (2003), interiors and facades of the National Historical and Cultural Reserve “Chyhyryn” (2006-2011), interiors of the Kharkiv State Motor Transport College (2009-2013), as well as residential interiors in Kharkiv, Kyiv, Kolomyia, Lyon (France) and Nuremberg (Germany).

Her favorite subjects are birds and the “tree of life”. The artist pays special attention to color, using complex color combinations. She developed a system of exercises with color circles of pastel shades to teach composition.

Recognition

Honored Master of Folk Art of Ukraine (2006). Member of the National Union of Masters of Folk Art of Ukraine (since 1995), deputy head of its Kharkiv regional branch. Laureate of the Danylo Shcherbakivskyi Prize (2003). Since 1985, she has been a regular participant in regional, national and international exhibitions in France (Lyon, 1996), Japan (Nagoya, 2005), Germany (Nuremberg, 2009), and China (Hong Kong, 2015).

The artist’s works are kept in the National Museum of Ukrainian Folk Decorative Art, the Museum of Folk Art of Slobozhanshchyna, the National Museum of Folk Art in Kolomyia, the Zaporizhzhia Regional Art Museum, the Dnipro Art Museum, and in private collections.