"Art not only reflects on the events around us, but also has an educational function; it guides, adjusts".

     Olha Pilyuhina (June 2023): 

“I am grateful to my Ukrainian friends in the United States and to caring Americans for their support of Ukraine, Ukrainians and our culture in general and my art in particular, for their help in organizing exhibitions and events, and for their assistance in preserving and promoting my works in such difficult times for my country.

    We are consciously staying at home in Ukraine, continuing to work, aiming to protect and further develop our culture for the affirmation of life.” 

    Olha Pilyuhina is an exceptional Ukrainian artist and tapestry maker in third generation! She lives and works in Ukraine now. Olha Pilyuhina's tapestries have been repeatedly recognized as the best tapestry of the year in Ukraine: "Hetman" (2014), "Blossom" (2015), "Cozaks" (2016), "Prosperity" (2017), "Stellar" (2018), "Blooming Family" (2019). We are delighted to present her works at the exhibitions of Ukrainian art. 

    Olha Pilyuhina has participated in more than 300 collective exhibitions and had 19 solo exhibitions both in Ukraine and abroad. Her works can be viewed in many museums, including the National Museum of Ukrainian Folk Decorative Art, the Museum of Kyiv, the Mykola Yaroshenko Poltava Museum of Art, and in private and corporate collections in Ukraine, the USA, Australia, Bulgaria, Canada, France, Germany, Great Britain, Hungary, Ireland, Lithuania, the Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Slovenia. 

    Ukraine has a long tradition of carpet weaving. Carpets were woven from wool and used to insulate homes and decorate walls. Nowadays, this necessity thing for warmth has become an object that brightens up life. This is so for Olha Pilyuhina's glorious tapestries! She started her career in her family's workshop and continues the famous traditions of the master carpet weavers from Reshetylivka, a town near Poltava. Dedicating her life to art, she is developing contemporary Ukrainian tapestry, preserving and popularizing its best traditions. In her workshop, she passes on her experience to the younger generation and also teaches several artistic disciplines at the Department of Fine Arts at National University "Poltava Polytechnic".

   Here are some of Olha Pilyuhina's reflections from 2022-2023:    

    "Art not only reflects on the events around us, but also has an educational function; it guides, adjusts. The artist has a special responsibility. We largely shape the scale of values, way of thinking, worldview and, as a result, the future. My strong position is that art should be constructive regardless of the circumstances and remind us of the true values and desires of the human soul."     

     "Some people will say that culture is not relevant now. But who will we   become if we lose it? Have you ever thought about what happens when you decorate your home or office with an artwork? You become an accomplice and even to some point a co-creator of something significant, making your own   contribution to the preservation and development of culture."

    "Under the influence of various factors, we make a conscious choice every day and every minute. This determines the path we take, which necessarily has an   upward or downward vector. Upward - to Light, Love, Peace, knowledge, development, or vice versa - to decline, destruction, darkness."