Strange Spring, 2020

Olya Kravchenko  

Olya Kravchenko's Strange Spring is a poetic and emotionally charged reflection on a specific moment in recent history – the early months of 2020, when the world stood still in the face of the COVID-19 pandemic. Painted in tempera and silver leaf on canvas, the artwork blends classical technique with modern symbolism to express a shared experience of isolation, hope, and quiet resilience.

At the centre of the composition, rendered within an oval frame reminiscent of a sacred icon, are a pair of stylised human lungs. Their inner structures are transformed into an intricate network of botanical forms, fusing the human body with the rhythms of nature. These lungs do not merely represent breath – they suggest fragility, life, and a longing to inhale the world again after months of restriction. Beneath them, stylised fronds and grasses emerge, evoking the arrival of spring and the gradual return of vitality. The silver detailing shimmers subtly with light, lending the piece an ethereal, timeless quality.

As in many of Kravchenko's works, there is a clear echo of the Boichukist school – an influence inherited from her grandfather, artist Ohrym Kravchenko. The composition's flatness, harmony, and stylised forms speak to this Ukrainian monumental tradition, but the message is thoroughly contemporary. Rather than classical religious iconography, the artist presents a modern meditation on sacredness in everyday life: the sacredness of breath, of health, of human connection.