About

Olenka Kleban is a sculptor and mouldmaker, Ukrainian folk singer and pysankar. 

She is a graduate of OCAD University, where she majored in Sculpture & Installation. Her favourite coursework was in woodworking, bronze casting, and art theory.

Olenka became a core member of Kosa Kolektiv in the early 2010s. Her silo as an emerging contemporary artist opened up to a field of collaboration with the Kosas, who shared her interest in Ukrainian traditions. This was a prolific period of adapting rural Ukrainian customs to urban life in Toronto. In addition to reviving old customs, Olenka’s involvement with Kosa Kolektiv influenced the content of her contemporary sculpture practice. Throughout this decade, Olenka produced sculptures in bronze, aluminum, and iron in a range of environments, from professional fine art foundries to community-led metal casting jamborees across the US and Canada. 

In 2020 Olenka moved to San Diego, California, where she now resides and is growing her family. Her latest works merge her love of bronze casting, mouldmaking, song, and ritual into bellmaking. In addition to metalwork, Olenka is a singer and pysanka teacher for House of Ukraine, an umbrella organization for Ukrainian culture in San Diego County.