Olga Janina, visual artist
Olga Janina Chrzanowska is a Polish born visual artist residing in Ottawa, Canada. As well as being a photographer and painter Olga has appeared in numerous performances and movies. She performed at Ottawa’s Nuit Blanche in an experimental performance based on a Japanese fairy tale, The White Hare and the Crocodile. She appeared in the role of the Bachelorette in George Clooney’s Confessions of a Dangerous Mind (a movie which Clooney directed, featuring Oscar winning actor Sam Rockwell).
In painting and photography Olga explores the landscape. Olga grew up by the Baltic Sea and is inspired by childhood memories of endless walks by the sea. She believes in the calming effects of nature, especially water (oceans, seas, lakes and rivers) and is interested in the effects of open spaces on a person. She is also interested in environmental psychology.
In her painting she often works from memory, creating horizons with many layers of acrylics, glazes and mixed media, including rice paper and sparkles. Creating paintings that reflect a shimmer and effervescence. Layers of paint similar to layers of memories. These landscapes are both representational, a real place in time but also the memories of places that she found inspiring and awe filling. Olga regularly spends time in nature: cross-country skiing, camping, canoeing and hiking, always with at least one of her cameras.
In photography her landscapes are mostly analogue based. She works with her rangefinder cameras: a medium format Mamiya and a 35mm Contax and a recently acquired vintage Polaroid 195 Land Camera. She also takes photographs with her Diana toy camera. Olga works in the darkroom printing her own prints on fiber based archival paper. Her photographs evoke a sense of solitude or calmness, at times loneliness or a sense of impermanence. Olga’s work has appeared in numerous exhibitions locally, including Festival X Ottawa.
Olga holds a BFA (Honours) Degree from the University of Ottawa and a Diploma in Interactive Multimedia from Algonquin College. In the past she took Advanced Darkroom photographic classes at the School of the Photographic Arts: Ottawa.
View Olga’s Curriculum Vitae.
