ALLA TKACHUK

Alla is a self-employed artist and art and creativity educator.

• Having graduated with degrees in science, Alla has pursued a career in fine art. Her work has featured in leading press and media, including the front pages of The Times (UK) and Bild (Germany), as well as in the Guardian, Independent, Jackdaw Art Review, Art Industry, Hello!, Der Spiegel, Die Welt, and ITV; exhibited worldwide; and included in art collections such as the Royal College of Music and the BBC Public Ownership Collection. Alla is a recipient of prestigious awards, including the Leverhulme Artist-in-Residence Award (UK) and the Lead Awards for print and media (Germany).
• In 2009, Alla founded and has since been running the education charity MASK Create, which has reached beneficiaries in over 16 countries across Africa, America, Europe and Asia. The organisation has gained international recognition and received awards including the ‘Most Innovative Learning Organisation 2020’ from SME News and the ‘Most Visionary Learning Organisation 2024’ from AI Non-Profit Organisation Awards.
• Alla is a Fellow of the RSA and lives in London.

Artist Statement

My artistic work explores the notion of human identity through both representational art and the synergy of art and digital technologies. Through my MASK project, I focus on the social dimension of art, demonstrating how art can transform education and society, nurture creativity, and empower individuals to create change.

Main projects

Portraits, 1997–2024 including:

• Sir Antonio Papano, music director of the Royal Opera House.
• World-renowned opera singers in Royal Opera House productions, including Sir John Tomlinson, Dmitri Hvorostovsky, Sir Bryn Terfel, Dame Felicity Lott, Angela Gheorghiu, Sir Willard White, Sir Thomas Allen, José Cura and Marcelo Álvarez. These works were exhibited at the Royal Society of Portrait Painters and the Royal Opera House.
• Dame Ninette de Valois, commissioned by the Royal Ballet.
• Royal Ballet principal dancers Dame Darcey Bussell, Irek Muhamedov and Jonathan Cope. The portrait of Dame Darcey featured on the front page of The Times (UK) in 1999.
• Public portrait commissions including by the University of Hull, University of London, and the Russian Academy of Science.
• Numerous private portrait commissions.

Prince Charles Portrait Series, 2000–2002

Following a sitting at Highgrove at the invitation of HRH, Alla created a series of drawings and paintings of Prince Charles. These featured on the front page of The Times (UK), Bild (Germany) and the cover of Der Freund magazine (Germany). The image titled ‘Black Prince’ won ‘Best Magazine Cover of the Year 2005' of the Lead Award. The series was exhibited at Ebury Galleries in London's Belgravia in 2002.

‘The 20th Century Naked Dictators’ Series, 2002–2007

This series of oil paintings, digital prints, wallpaper and textile design and an animation explored the historical figures of Hitler, Mussolini, Franco, Ma and Stalin. It was exhibited at the Crone Gallery in Berlin in 2007. The painting ‘Siamese Twins’ became ‘The Image of the Week’ in The Times (UK) in 2003, and was named the ‘Critic's Choice’ by the Saatchi Gallery in 2007. The animation ‘Christ is Not an Aryan’ was screened on top of the Axel Springer Building in Berlin in 2007 and dubbed ‘one of three things to see in Berlin’ by Bild national newspaper and BZ magazine (Germany). The images of the full figures of ‘The Naked Dictators’ were published in Der Freund magazine in 2005; other images featured in the Berliner Morgenpost newspaper, Sleek magazine, and Die Welt newspaper (Germany).

'Instigative Heads', 2004–2010

This series explored the transformation of the production and consumption of representational art through modern 3D digital technologies. Alla's innovative technique involved scanning life models using specialist 3D medical equipment to produce 'texture maps' which she then rendered in oil. Using specialist software, Alla merged the oil paintings into 3D digital ‘paintings’, moulding them in space and time. When exhibited, she enhanced the final work with 'electro-acoustic landscapes' and motion-sensing technology, enabling visitors to interact with the Heads. The work was exhibited as 3D colour-printed models and projections at The Shunt in London in 2009 and the Balaklava Odyssey Media Art Festival in Crimea in 2010. In 2006, the Heads were featured at Alla’s seminars at the National Portrait Gallery in London.

The National Portrait Gallery Seminars, 2004–2006

Alla curated her own seminar series titled ‘The Changing Face of Portraiture’ at the National Portrait Gallery in London, debating with artists and critics how portraiture can escape the ‘shackles of convention’. The Times (UK) was the series’ media partner. The series comprised three seminars: ‘Contemporary Portrait Painting: New Approaches’ (April 2005); ‘Photographic and Digital Portraiture’ (Sept 2005); and ‘3D & Installation Portraiture’ (June 2006). The Times wrote: ‘Alla Tkachuk believes that radical new concepts are needed in portraiture today. She would like to encourage 3D digital and installation portraiture, has invited a cosmetic surgeon to discuss him “sculpting faces”, commissioned a “sound portrait” that uses computer software which translates image into music, and offered herself as a living portrait to grace the walls of the NPG. Tkachuk intends the choice of venue to be provocative. The NPG was established by the Victorians as a gallery about the history and status of the sitter rather than the quality of the portrait as art.’ (The Times, 13 June 2006.)

MASK Create, 2009–ongoing

In 2009, Alla founded the education charity MASK Create (formerly Mobile Art School in Kenya) to embed creativity into mainstream education and society to help unlock human potential. Since then, MASK’s model of creativity education has benefited thousands of young people and educators in over 16 countries, gaining recognition from the Kenyan government as well as international acclaim and prestigious awards. Its work has been presented and exhibited at UNESCO, the Woodrow Wilson Center, the Library of Congress, GW University, and the White House (USA); University of London, the Saatchi Gallery, Turner Contemporary, ROSL (UK); Nairobi National Museum, KEPSA, University of Nairobi (Kenya); and other leading institutions. Alla is currently writing teachers' manuals based on the MASK model to be distributed in Kenyan schools.

Other work

Between 2014 and 2019, Alla wrote a column ‘How to Look at Art’ for the Kenyan national newspaper The Star, and contributed to the RSA blog (UK), the Results for Development Institute blog (USA), and magazines AD (UK), Childhood Education (USA), and The Private Sector (Kenya).

Artwork

Testimonials

Exhibitions

Critical Acclaim

Saatchi Gallery           Alla Tkachuk | Saatchi Art

Linkedin                      https://www.linkedin.com/in/allatkachuk/

Facebook                    https://www.facebook.com/allatkachukmask/

Twitter                         https://twitter.com/MASKCreativity/

Instagram                   https://www.instagram.com/maskcreativity

Email                           alla@allatkachuk.com