Olga Karika explores the connection between memory, emotion and the natural world through softly blurred forms and delicate colour compositions. Working directly on metal, she uses its reflective surface to bring the surrounding environment and the viewer into the artwork, creating constantly changing visual experiences. Inspired by personal memories and the tranquillity of nature, her current work focuses on floral motifs and abstract landscapes, while gradually opening up to the inclusion of the human figure.
What would you like audiences to discover in your work beyond the initial visual impression?
Beyond the initial visual impression, I hope my paintings evoke personal memories and emotions in the viewer. The colours, soft and blurred forms, and subtle reflections of the surrounding world might remind someone of a happy moment, a place where they felt at peace, or a fleeting experience of beauty in nature. I would love for each person to find something deeply personal in the work.
What role does memory play as a starting point for your paintings?
Memory plays a very important role in my practice because it can transform the way we perceive our past experiences. Moments that may have seemed ordinary when we lived through them can become precious and almost magical with time, as memory gives them new meaning. In a way, revisiting these memories through painting allows me to reconnect with moments of happiness and perhaps even reshape how I experience them.
What draws you to metal, and how has it changed your understanding of painting?
My interest in metal developed as I began exploring etching and other printmaking techniques alongside my longstanding practice of oil painting. Having experimented with leaving the background exposed in my paintings, I became interested in combining the two approaches by painting directly onto metal. The unpainted surface has since become an essential part of my work, reflecting light, colour, and the surrounding environment, allowing each painting to merge with the space around it.
To what extent do you leave room for chance and the viewer’s perception to shape the experience of the image?
I love the idea that the viewer can become part of the artwork, quite literally, through their reflection in the metal surface. As their reflection merges with the blurred forms and colours, it can become fragmented or partially obscured, making the viewer’s presence an integral part of the composition. In this way, each encounter with the painting becomes personal and constantly changing.
What are you currently working on, and which new themes would you like to explore?
At the moment, I am drawn to flora and abstract landscapes because I find a sense of inner calm in nature, which reconnects me with warm memories and places where I have felt happy. These subjects also offer an immense aesthetic pleasure through their colours, forms, and atmosphere. Looking ahead, I would like to gradually introduce the human figure into my work, exploring how the presence of people might interact with these landscapes and become part of the same visual and emotional world.