BIO
Oxana Kovalchuk is an artist from Russia, currently living and working in New Jersey. She received her BA in Psychology and Economics from Omsk State University in Russia. She completed her MFA in Fine Arts from the School of Visual Arts in New York in 2019. Kovalchuk’s artistic process is an exploration of her overlapping experiences as a woman, immigrant, mother, and an artist. Her mixed-media collages use a combination of sourced and invented imagery to establish new, hybrid worlds. Kovalchuk has participated in group shows locally and internationally, including BWAC in New York, Park 23 Art Fair, New York, PROTO Gallery300 in Hoboken, Art Fair 14C in Jersey City, and Lankai Art Gallery in Anshan City, China. Kovalchuk is also a founding member of StartaArta, an organization that curates and organizes pop-up shows and panels to support artists.

ARTISTIC STATEMENT
My mixed media collages use a combination of sourced and invented imagery to establish new worlds, free from the rules of perspective, gravity, and scale. I use cardboard as a base, which I cover in a variety of media, including gouache, pastels, and decorative paper. I add a layer of recognizable images from magazines and other sources, including cutouts of bodies or body parts, and domestic objects like vases and sofas. When I place the original images in my new space, their meaning can change completely. The same body might represent strength in one context, but fear in another, depending on my placement.
My collages allow me to create new, hybrid spaces that transform the meaning of familiar imagery. I bend the rules of geometry to create distorted perspectives and new realities. In this way, I destroy existing societal structures to create my own system of rules. Because I create the rules, I can create whatever I want. These new realities have refracted meanings. The collages exist in entirely new worlds, which can be alluring, surreal, or strangely frightening. My work is like the reflections of a curved mirror: while the subject remains the same, the resulting image is new and distorted. Linear space becomes dimensional, offering an even greater variety of shapes. New bodies are created, and lines and angles take on different meanings.
In my work, I push the boundaries of what is possible, allowing images to be viewed from different perspectives simultaneously. Each new element causes the collage to shift into a new reality. I create a new set of rules, and then I break them, in a gesture of empowerment and invention. Each change represents a breakthrough, moving beyond existing limitations. With each change, there is a rebirth in my work. Everything is possible. If you want it, you can get it. You can create new spaces if you want to.