Ayla Olya Dmyterko is a Ukrainian-Canadian artist currently based in Glasgow, Scotland.
Interweaving lived experience and cultural memory, her interdisciplinary practice reckons with parallel histories of possession and dispossession of lands, objects, bodies and skies. Shedding light on the psychological effects of utopian imaginaries and the realities of post-utopian presents, she works with remedial material cultures in painting, moving image, sculpture, textiles and texts. Her works are imbued with articulations of the pre-patriarchal, ritualistic, tacit, vernacular and folkloric; disintegrating canonical interpretations of art history and forms of artistic labour. Circling eternally recurring ways that images are used to inform desire and belief, she is interested in ways that artists become mediums.
Her works have been shown internationally in solo and group exhibitions, including: Alma Pearl, London, UK (2024); ICA, London Short Film Festival, UK (2024); KIRKI Projects, Sifnos, GR (2024); David Dale Gallery, Glasgow, UK (2023); Meno Avilys, Vilnius, (2023); Pangée, Montréal, CA (2023); VITRINE Basel, CH (2022); Zalucky Contemporary, Toronto, CA (2022); Alchemy Film Festival, Hawick, UK (2022) & Lunchtime Gallery, Glasgow, UK (2021). Her works have been acquired by national & private collections including the Saskatchewan Arts Board.
Dmyterko was born in 1988 on the lands of the Cree, Saulteaux, Dakota, Lakota, and Nakota, as well as the Métis/Michif Nation, treaty 4 territory, Saskatchewan. She obtained a Bachelor of Arts Education from the University of Regina, a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Painting from Concordia University, Montréal and a Master of Fine Arts from the Glasgow School of Art, where she was awarded the Mackendrick Painting scholarship and was the recipient of the Glasgow Sculpture Studios Graduate Fellowship.
Ayla would like to acknowledge the support of the Canada Council for the Arts, Creative Scotland & the Shevchenko Foundation
EDUCATION
• Master of Fine Art, Glasgow School of Art, UK
• Bachelor of Fine Art (Painting), Concordia University, Montréal, CA
• Bachelor of Education (Visual Art & Dance), University of Regina, CA
SOLO EXHIBITIONS
2025 (upcoming) Alma Pearl, London, UK
2023 Liberate Thee, Angel of History, Pangée, Montréal, CA
2022 Solastalgic Inheritance, Goethe Institut, Glasgow, UK
2021 POUR THE FEAR: Solastalgic Synchronicities, Lunchtime Gallery, Glasgow, UK
2016 The Story Began with a Beet (It Must End with the Devil) Pangée, Montréal, CA
SELECTED GROUP EXHIBITIONS
2024
• Antigone Revisited, Hypha Studios, London, UK
• What We Mean to Say, Banff Centre, CA
• Soil Horizon, KIRKI Projects, Sifnos, GR
• Bitch Magic, Alma Pearl, London, UK
• The Seasons Reverse, 36 Washington St Studios, Glasgow, UK
• Скарбниця/Skarbnytsya, Glasgow & Edinburgh
2022
• The Grass At Our Feet, VITRINE, Basel, CH
• Labour & Memory, ACT Arts Centre, Maple Ridge, CA
• Happy Tide Will Flood Again, 5 Florence Street, Glasgow, UK
• Artists for Ukraine, 16 Nicholson Street, Glasgow, UK
• Reverb, Royal Scottish Academy, Visual Arts Scotland, UK
2020
• Ritual & Lore, Art Gallery of Regina, CA
SCREENINGS & PERFORMANCE
2024
• Over the Hill & Far Away, London Short Film Festival, ICA London, UK
Collective Dreaming, Meno Avilys, LI
• Shadows of Forgotten Ancestors, SODA, Manchester, UK
• Drawing From Calcareous Milk Teeth, aCinema Space, US
2023
• On Volya: Filling in the Frescoes, David Dale Gallery, Glasgow, UK
2022
• Collective Dreaming, CCA Glasgow, UK
• Our Shape Apparently, Alchemy Film Festival, Hawick, UK
• Sometimes Time, Mourning School, SE
2021
• Cowlick in a Devil’s Peak, CCA Glasgow, UK
• And the Land Breathes Back, aCinema, US
2016
• Performance, Rebecca Belmore in The Candahar, MacKenzie Art Gallery, CA
RESIDENCIES
2024 Summer Artist in Residence, Banff Centre for Arts & Creativity, CA
2023 Guest Resident, Résidence Pangée, Montréal, CA
2022 Inshriach Bothy Residency, Cairngorm Forest, Scotland, UK
2021 Graduate Fellowship, Glasgow Sculpture Studios
2014 Emma Lake Residency, Saskatchewan, CA
COMMISSIONS, GRANTS & AWARDS
2024
Canada Council for the Arts, Explore & Create
Creative Scotland, Open Fund for Individuals
Gail and Stephen A. Jarislowsky Fund
VACMA, Glasgow Life & Creative Scotland
2023
Creative Scotland, Open Fund for Individuals
2022
Stephen Palmer Bursary, Creative Scotland
J. Karakola & L. Ladin Visual Arts, Shevchenko Foundation
Commission, Cop-27, United Nations
2021
Creative Scotland, Open Fund for Individuals
VACMA, Creative Scotland & Glasgow Life
Funding Recipient: Hope Scott Trust Foundation
Funding Recipient: Eaton Fund
Visual Arts Grant, Shevchenko Foundation
2020
Global Talent Endorsement, Arts Council England
Sustainable Practice Award, GSA
Access Scholarship, GSA
2019 Karabin Scholarship, Shevchenko Foundation
2018 Mackendrick Scholarship, GSA
2017 Community Leader Award, Seven Stones School, Regina, CA
2015 Fine Arts Travel Award, Canadian Consulate General of Poland
ARTIST TALKS, PANELS & INTERVIEWS
2024
• Silver Cord Sliver for ‘Questions of Painting,’ Royal College of Art, London, UK
• Panel led by Celeste Baracchi & Linda Stupart, Alma Pearl, London, UK
• Artist Talk, Axis Arts Programme, UK
• Animist Approaches to Culture-Nature,
• Interview, Engage Scotland & Inshriach Bothy, 2024
2023
• Interview w Veronika Ivanova, In the Weeds, CKUT Montréal, CA & Vilnius Radio, LI
• Interview w M. Valiulytė & J. Šilytė, Collective Dreaming, CCA Glasgow Annex, UK
2022
• Artist Talk as part of Vyshyvani Kazky, Embroidered Stories, Zalucky Contemporary, CA
• Interview with Caitlin Merrett King, Young Artists in Conversation, UK
2020
• Artist Talk, Academic English for Creative Disciplines, Glasgow School of Art
• Artist Talk as part of Ritual & Lore, Art Gallery of Regina, CA
SELECTED REVIEWS, FEATURES & CATALOGUES
2023
• History Repeats Itself writ. Agnieszka Matejko, Galleries West, CA
• Ukraine on the Membrane, FORMA Editions, London, UK
2022
• What is Read in the Wax writ. Sam Weselowski, ReIssue Magazine, Vancouver, CA
• Boym's Berlin in ‘The Future Of…,’ KAJET Journal, Bucharest, RO
• Ukrainian-Canadian artist brings folklore & history together writ. Ayesha Ghaffar, CA
• Solastalgic Synchronicities, Art Maze Mag Ed 26, New York, US
• & History Wails Beneath Us in Language Compendium, 2 Queens Gallery, Leicester, UK
• Northern Exposure, Art Canada Institute
• Tell a Tale to be Preserved writ Yuri Bilinsky, CA
2021
• Pour the Fear, KUBA Paris, Bonn, DE
• Eternal Recurrence of Escapist Spectre in ‘Penrose Helix,’ London, UK
2020
• Certainty and its Refractions writ. Dr. Ranjana Thapalyal, MAP Magazine, Glasgow, UK
• Our Ancestors Exist as a Reliquary of Whispers, KAJET Journal, Bucharest, RO
• Ritual & Lore, writ Jess Richter, Art Gallery of Regina, CA
• Cultural Memories writ. Jera MacPherson, Galleries West, CA
2019
• Distance of Sea, of Years in ‘Chains,’ CCA Glasgow & Kunsthochschule Mainz, DE
TEACHING ENGAGEMENTS
• Autotheory & Cultural Memory Workshop, Ukrainian Residenz, Berlin, DE
• Visiting Lecturer, Painting MA, Royal College of Art, London, UK
• Mentor, Axis Arts Graduate Programme, Wakefield, UK
• Arts Educator, Beacon Arts Centre, Greenock, UK
• Lecturer, Academic English for Creative Disciplines, Glasgow School of Art, UK
• Arts Educator, MacKenzie Art Gallery, Regina, CA
• Resident Artist, Seven Stones School, Regina, CA
• Guest Artist, Dunlop Art Gallery, Regina, CA
COLLECTIONS & ARCHIVES
Ayla Dmyterko's artistic archive is held at the National Gallery of Canada, her work has been collected by the Saskatchewan Arts Board's Permanent Collection and is included in private collections in Canada and the UK