The ABC of Enamel
Oleksii Koval
January 8 – May 5, 2024
Fisher Gallery
Public Reception: Thursday, February 22, 4 – 6p

Ukrainian artist Oleksii Koval’s mixed media enamel and etchings create environmentally inspired works that celebrate joy, diversity, and care. 

The ABC of Enamel features Oleksii Koval’s mixed-media technique that incorporates hot enamel and etching, and that includes the artist’s Ukrainian series, Spring is Coming, Alphabet of the Big City, Jungle, Nu, and other individual works. The exhibition expresses the beauty and harmony of the world and the joy of exploring and communicating with it. Although Koval works with hot enamel and printmaking, incorporating silver, gold, and gems, his style has a distinctive, painterly quality. This life-affirming exhibition speaks to the enjoyment of diversity and, most importantly, is a call to care for all living things around us.

Artist biography
Oleksii Koval is an enamel artist who was born in Kyiv, Ukraine. He graduated from the Republican Art School, where he was especially inspired by the work of Taras Shevchenko. At the National Academy of Arts and Architecture, Kyiv, he was influenced by painter Zabashta Vasyl Ivanovich.

Koval has worked with his hot enamel technique for sixteen years, studying in private hot enamel studios around the world, including China, India, and the European Union. He is the author of The Language of Enamel project, which examines the history of enamel up to the present day. His work has popularized this ancient technique according to the tradition and approach used by Leonardo da Vinci.

Koval is a laureate of national awards, including the Kateryna Vasylivna Bilokur (2020) and the Ilya Yefimovich Repin (2021). His work has been exhibited in the Tashkent Biennale of Decorative Arts, and he has exhibited and conducted workshops at The Enamelist Society in Roswell, GA, and at the Pocosin Arts School of Fine Craft in Columbia, NC. Koval’s work has been shown in over fifty solo exhibitions in leading art museums in Ukraine and galleries in Europe and the United States.  

Otterbein & The Arts: Opening Doors to the World – Ukraine