Nikolina Kovalenko

Biography:

Nikolina is interested in humanity’s psychological connection with Nature and strives to expose the
consequences our everyday actions have on the environment. The artist works with fragile
ecosystems creating artwork inspired by locations specific to each project. Her subjects range from global warming, deforestation and coral bleaching, to processing and interpreting visual landscape and cultural associations.
Nikolina Kovalenko received her MFA from Moscow Surikov Art Institute (Moscow, Russia) in 2011 and studied at Universität der Künste (Berlin) in 2010. She holds a Gold Medal from the
Russian Art Academy. The artist currently lives and works in Brooklyn, NY.

Exhibitions:

Kovalenko’s exhibition history includes solo shows at Caldwell Gallery Hudson, Gitana Rosa
Gallery and Dacia Gallery among others. The museum shows include group shows at MOMMA
(Moscow Museum Of Modern Art) in 2021 and The Russian Museum (Saint Petersburg, Russia) in 2019. Nikolina exhibited in USA, UK, Russia, United Arab Emirates, Japan, Germany, France and
Iceland and worked on environmental projects around the world including Brazilian Amazon, Iceland, the Andes, the Caribbean and the Red Sea.
Through collaborating with scientists on joint lectures, workshops and webinars, the artist strives to
share a more creative approach to explaining the fragility of ecosystems and the steps one can take to
protect them. She donates part of the proceeds from her projects to selected environmental conservation organizations.
Kovalenko’s work has been reviewed in art blogs, newspapers and magazines and is in numerous corporate and private collections worldwide.

Statement:

“My work focuses on climate change and humanity’s psychological connection with nature.
Through my paintings of fragile ecosystems, I strive to expose the consequences our everyday actions have on the environment. I create artwork inspired by locations specific to each project, my previous series include glacier melting in Iceland, deforestation and illegal logging in the Brazilian Amazon, and “Utopian Reefscapes” of the Caribbean and The Red Sea.
Currently Im creating a series of paintings called “Panthalassa”. Derived from Greek πᾶν “all” and θάλασσα sea”, Pathalassa was the superocean that surrounded the supercontinent Pangaea ~250 million years ago. In this series I portray the ancient world where water is below, above and around us as far as the eyes can see yet no humans can witness. The grandiosity and power of this infinite, encompassing body of water reaches
through time to our imagination. Our internal and external states are deeply affected by the
nature surrounding us. By intertwining emotional impact with spiritual value ocean historically
represents for many coastal cultures, these paintings invite the viewers past and present selves to be enveloped by our mysterious water planet”.