Artist's Statement

We all live with a duality which is intrinsic to our human nature. On the one hand, an inner world of faith: the thread of prayer, a relationship with God. On the other, an outer world of relationships with people, with nature: the persona we put forth.

As an iconographer, I put self-expression and emotion aside. An icon is written with the discipline of theological expression, from within an established tradition that is received and understood by an entire community. Iconography is prayer, prayer made visible. It is a window into eternity. It nourishes and supports me.

As a secular artist, I address the tension between our interiority and our encounter with the outer world. My secular work is much influenced by iconography but retains the quintessential secular quality of being an expression of personal feelings and reactions rather than visual scripture.

Biography

Olga Poloukhine (née Koulomzin) was born in 1934 in Paris, France. The daughter of Russian émigrés who had escaped the Russian Revolution, her formative childhood was spent in France during World War II. In 1948 she and her parents, two sisters, and brother immigrated to the United States, settling in Nyack, NY. In 1956 she graduated from Douglass College at Rutgers University with a Bachelor of Arts with High Honors. Her thesis was on the "The Russian Icon," an interest greatly informed by her Russian Orthodox religion and Russian culture. She completed her education at Columbia University with a Master's in Art Education in 1960. That same year, she married Nicolas Poloukhine, a neurosurgeon whose own family's history closely matched Olga's: Russian émigré parents who passed through France prior to ultimately settling in the United States. The couple settled in Sea Cliff, NY, which had a large Russian community, and ultimately raised 3 children there.

Now 90, a retrospective of her work shows how she has come full circle. Her work has spanned different media and different subjects. Throughout the years there have always been periods that take on elements of an earlier one as she transitions from one to the next. Whether a return to an old theme or an old media, she culminates in a final return with her current work focused almost exclusively on iconography.

Her earliest period, work that she initiated at Columbia University, was primarily oil on canvas, with large canvases. By the 1970s she discovered etching and had a prolific career with color prints inspired by the landscapes of the Turks and Caicos where she and her husband would travel regularly when the islands were still a relatively unknown. She was a founding member of the Graphic Eye Gallery in Port Washington, NY, a gallery devoted to print work. As she matured, she began to return to larger and larger work eventually moving to prints combined with collage.

After more than 30 years in Sea Cliff, the couple moved to Lagrangeville, NY in 1991. As part of Nicolas' retirement, the couple took lessons in iconography, which would change the trajectory of Olga's work. She began to use the egg tempera technique that she learned with iconography in her secular work. The work itself took on a much more transcendental quality. The pull towards the spiritual was strong, the works were again big and bold.

With age there was a cyclical return to old themes, but always with a more ethereal quality. She would return to themes of nature (trees, mangroves, leaves), she would return to painting (on boards and on paper) and return repeatedly to iconography. Her efforts have more and more focused on that which first propelled her on her creative path. She continues to paint icons on commission and gives courses to those who want to learn this technique. Blessed with a long life, Olga work has always progressed forward, circling back to an ultimate truth. She is a deeply spiritual person, and her art has blossomed over her lifetime to the ultimate expression of this spirituality.

Website: http://studio.poloukhine.com
Contact: okoupolo@gmail.com