Alina Maksimenko

Girl in the Hat

Alina Maksimenko was born in 1974 in Kiev, Ukraine. She studied art at Taras Shevchenko National University of Kyiv and Boychuk University. She graduated from university in 1993 and began exhibiting in 1996. She is a member of the Global Art Union BG and National Union of Artists of Ukraine. For Maksimenko, the painting comes easily. She describes it as an organic process, one which involves constant flexibility. She explains, “the Impression of an emotion, a feeling, a memory is fundamental to all my works while light and color are key elements in translating, transmitting or interpreting these impressions.” This exercise, committing something as fleeting and ephemeral as a feeling to canvas, requires a fluid process, one that is able to adapt to the transitory nature of time and perception. Maksimenko embraces impermanence in her ability to re-imagine her subject even after she has committed a composition to canvas. Her willingness to overwrite preconceived compositions creates a visible history in her work, one which helps realize her story. Working within the golden ratio or “Divine Proportion”, a term used to describe beauty and balance in art achieved through perfectly proportionate compositions, Maksimenko is able to accomplish harmony in an otherwise lawless method of painting. She states: “I'm working on understanding global concepts, such as fidelity, virtue, eternity, future etcetera, and reflecting on these enormous notions in relation to myself.” Thus painting becomes a notional space by which to explore these complex ideas, a space which is simultaneously critical and yet playful.