Yuliia Korienkova’s art looks at future through eyes of present

Muhammad Yusuf, Features Writer

Oblong Contemporary Art Gallery has announced Metamorphosis, a weeklong exhibition (from December 6) featuring UAE-based Ukrainian artist Yuliia Korienkova, in collaboration with SKAYA Art. Korienkova is a versatile art maker, blending technical expertise with a love for philosophy and the arts. Having lived and worked for a decade in the UAE, she has showcased globally, including in exhibitions such as Robosapien in Abu Dhabi besides launching her Robotic Art Gallery in Vienna.

Working at the intersection of art and technology with the backdrop of robotic art, Korienkova is mesmerised with the possibilities of robotics and artificial intelligence (AI). She experiments with the rise of a future where art can be customised into data, as per the wishes of the viewer/user. She uses recycled materials to create artworks, and while upcycling wasted material and creating new concepts from them, she raises questions on contemporary consumerism, demanding a reconsideration.

She has said that robotics and AI attract her due to their capacity to do endless tasks. They can, in the future, be used by humans to solve problems, she feels. As a beginner-experimenter, her art showed images of robots; it was then a short hop to using AI to make art. The endless variations involved here has empowered her imagination and she has become attached to it. Many of her creations come with interactive controls and can respond to Apps. But art for her is not just decorative or ornamental: Korienkovo endows them with functionality also. For example, some of her art “products” can do things like connecting to Siri or play mp3 files. She thus attempts to change our view of what art is and what it can or should do. According to Korienkova, the future is a place where art will have gadget-based applications, with fluidity than stationary displays, the rule. Art will tend towards a more digital and online existence. She is unfazed by this potential of technology to create new aesthetics of art. It’s just as exciting as when art changed as professional cameras came into being. In fact, living in Abu Dhabi itself is inspiration for her; she sees the city as futuristic, providing her with many points of work reference.

But art making for her is not only dependent on cutting edge technology such as circuit boards and electronic devices. Korienkova uses traditional media such as painting and collage also. Though for several years now, she has worked in the art-on-technology field enriching her canvases with 3D printing, holograms and recycled electronics, lately she has been addressing the subject of art-environmental struggles too. She has a diverse educational background. She attended Kharkiv Art School and afterwards pursued her education at Petro Vasylenko Kharkiv National Technical University, Kharkiv, earning a bachelor’s degree in engineering. She completed the Master of Arts program in Philosophy at UNESCO Chair for Philosophy of Human Communication. She has also attended Sorbonne University Abu Dhabi for French language and a Running a Contemporary Gallery course at Sotheby’s Institute of Art.

Yuliia Korienkova is based in Abu Dhabi.

She has participated in World Art Dubai, taken part in a group exhibitions at the Louvre in Paris and Monaco, Monte Carlo. She features in the international project Artbook Playboy Mexico with artists Richard Orlinski, Super Buddha, Gilda Garza, and others. She has contributed to World Women Fund for the Art Can Heal project to empower one million women by 2030. Korienkova has collaborated with international artists and represented Ukraine as a UAE resident at the EXPO 2020 in the Ukrainian pavilion. Her works are a part of the MIA Art Collection, and she has participated in the exhibition titled Fragility by MIA Art Collection at the Canadian University Dubai. She is a founder member of The Arts Club Dubai and has been featured in various publications such as Flaunt, IB Times UK, Haute Living, Daily Caller, V Magazine, L’Officiel, Harper’s Bazaar and Livemint.

Technology has been providing artists with new ways to express themselves for a very long time. The invention of lantern influenced luminism, the American landscape painting style of the 1850s to 1870s, characterised by effects of light on landscape. Impressionism was born with the invention of portable paint tubes that enabled artists to paint outdoors. Andy Warhol could not have marketed his brand without silkscreen printing. Currently, the internet and social media have increased engagement with audiences and made art a more participatory experience. They have also made arts audiences more varied and art making a much more non-intimidatory experience and socially a more profitable business. The Net has also played a major role in broadening the boundaries of what is considered art.

Founded in 2016, SKAYA Art Agency is a Dubai-based art consultancy specialising in contemporary fine art, pop and street art. It plays a role in advancing the region’s art scene, with its individual perspective on consultancy, backed by a strong expertise in art history. Oblong Contemporary is an Italian art gallery promoting contemporary art by established and emerging international artists. Established in 2019, it collaborates with talents by providing them a local and international platform and by ensuring value across locations in Dubai and Forte dei Marmi, Tuscany, Italy. “As a gallery”, Oblong Contemporary says, “(we are) committed to representing a successful arena for culture, functioning as a bridge between Italy and the UAE.”