Ayla Dmyterko (she/her) is a Ukrainian-Canadian artist currently living & working in Glasgow, Scotland. She was born and raised on the lands of the Cree, Saulteaux, Dakota, Lakota, and Nakota, as well as the homeland of the Métis/Michif Nation, treaty 4, Regina, Saskatchewan
Interweaving lived experience and cultural memory, she reckons with histories of possession and dispossession of lands, objects, bodies and skies. Led by the Off-Modern, her works are grounded in painting, at times expanding to moving image, dance, sculpture, textiles and texts.
Dmyterko completed her MFA at the Glasgow School of Art, where she was awarded the Graduate Fellowship through the Glasgow Sculpture Studios. Her works have been shown internationally in solo and group exhibitions & screenings, 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 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.
Ayla would like to acknowledge the support of the Canada Council for the Arts, Creative Scotland & the Shevchenko Foundation
EDUCATION
• (upcoming) Skowhegan School of Painting & Sculpture, US
• Master of Fine Art, Glasgow School of Art, UK
• Bachelor of Fine Art (Painting & Printmaking), 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 Vyshyvani Kazky, Embroidered Stories, Zalucky Contemporary, Toronto, 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
FELLOWSHIPS & RESIDENCIES
• Summer Artist in Residence, Banff Centre for Arts & Creativity, CA
• Guest Resident, Résidence Pangée, Montréal, CA
• Inshriach Bothy Residency, Cairngorm Forest, Scotland, UK
• Graduate Fellowship, Glasgow Sculpture Studios
• Emma Lake Residency, Saskatchewan, CA
REVIEWS, FEATURES & CATALOGUES
• (upcoming) Art Canada Institute, ed. Phillip Dumbowsky, CA, 2026
• (upcoming) Backflash Magazine, Interview with Maegan Beck, CA, 2025
• Animist Approaches to Culture-Nature, Interview, Engage Scotland, 2024
• History Repeats Itself writ. Agnieszka Matejko, Galleries West, CA, 2023
• In the Weeds, Interview with Veronika Ivanova, CKUT Montréal, CA & Vilnius Radio, LI, 2023
• Interview w M. Valiulytė & J. Šilytė, Collective Dreaming, CCA Glasgow Annex, UK, 2023
• Ukraine on the Membrane, FORMA Editions, London, UK, 2023
• Interview w Caitlin Merrett King, Young Artists in Conversation, UK, 2022
• What is Read in the Wax writ. Sam Weselowski, ReIssue Magazine, Vancouver, CA, 2022
• Boym's Berlin in ‘The Future Of…,’ KAJET Journal, Bucharest, RO, 2022
• Ukrainian-Canadian artist brings folklore & history together, The Ridge, CA, 2022
• Solastalgic Synchronicities, Art Maze Mag Ed 26, New York, US, 2022
• & History Wails Beneath Us in Language Compendium, 2 Queens Gallery, Leicester, UK, 2022
• Northern Exposure, Art Canada Institute, Toronto, CA, 2022
• Tell a Tale to be Preserved writ Yuri Bilinsky, New Pathways, CA, 2022
• Pour the Fear, KUBA Paris, Bonn, DE, 2021
• Eternal Recurrence of Escapist Spectre in ‘Penrose Helix,’ London, UK, 2021
• Certainty and its Refractions writ. Dr. Ranjana Thapalyal, MAP Magazine, Glasgow, UK, 2020
• Our Ancestors Exist as a Reliquary of Whispers, KAJET Journal, Bucharest, RO, 2020
• Ritual & Lore, Exhibition Catalogue and Text writ Jess Richter, Art Gallery of Regina, CA , 2020
• Cultural Memories writ. Jera MacPherson, Galleries West, CA, 2020
• Distance of Sea, of Years in ‘Chains,’ CCA Glasgow & Kunsthochschule Mainz, DE, 2019
ARTIST TALKS & TEACHING
• Visiting Lecturer, BA Fine Art, Liverpool John Moores University, UK
• Visiting Lecturer, Painting MA, Royal College of Art, London, UK
• Autotheory & Cultural Memory Workshop, Ukrainian Residenz, Berlin, DE
• Panel led by Celeste Baracchi & Linda Stupart, Alma Pearl, London, UK
• Mentor, Axis Arts Graduate Programme, Wakefield, UK
• Artist Talk, Zalucky Contemporary and St. Volodymyr Institute, CA
• Arts Educator, Beacon Arts Centre, Greenock, UK
• Lecturer, Academic English for Creative Disciplines, Glasgow School of Art, UK
• Arts Educator, RELI and Outreach, MacKenzie Art Gallery, Regina, CA
• Guest Artist, Dunlop Art Gallery, Regina, CA
COLLECTIONS & ARCHIVES
Ayla Dmyterko's artistic archive is held in the National Gallery of Canada Archives & Collections. Her work has been acquired by the Saskatchewan Arts Board Permanent Collection and is included in private collections in Canada and the United Kingdom.