Barberini Fauno 2, 2023

Timi O  

Timi O is the artistic name of Olga Timireva, a contemporary artist whose practice is grounded in close observation of the human figure, material transformation, and the relationship between image and lived experience.

Before dedicating herself fully to art in 2022, Timireva studied Public International Law at Lomonosov Moscow State University and spent several years working in human rights, representing individuals before Russian and international institutions. This experience continues to inform her sensitivity to vulnerability, agency, and the ways in which individuals are perceived through larger systems.

Her artistic process begins with fragments that might otherwise pass unnoticed: a face, a gesture, a body, a reflection, or the movement between light and shadow. Removed from their original context, these fragments acquire new psychological intensity.

Timireva works with ink, charcoal, translucent washes, and layered surfaces. In her RED series, she uses red acrylic ink to reinterpret classical sculpture and the human body. Through successive transparent layers, she builds volume while preserving the untouched white paper as light. The process resembles sculpting in reverse: form is constructed through accumulation rather than carved away.

Red becomes both physical and symbolic — recalling blood, warmth, danger, flesh, and vitality. Through this restricted language, Timireva examines the moment when an image stops functioning as an object and begins to feel alive.