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Oksana Kryzhanivska HEADSHOT

Oksana Kryzhanivska

  • Assistant Professor, Creative Technologies
  • Area Head, Creative Technologies

Education

  • PhD, Computational Media and Design, University of Calgary, Canada, 2018
  • MFA, Sculpture and Digital Fabrication, University of Calgary, Canada,  2011
  • BFA, Visual Arts, York University, Canada, 2008

Biography

Oksana Kryzhanivska is a practicing artist and researcher at UW-Milwaukee who believes that technology has the capacity to expand art media, while art can redefine the technological vision. The artist holds a Ph.D. in Computational Media and Design and a Master of Fine Arts in sculpture from the University of Calgary, where the scholarly background at the intersection of technology and art continues to inform Oksana’s artistic practice. Her interdisciplinary background grounds her practice in both material thinking and algorithmic systems, shaping an approach to technology as an embodied, cultural, and aesthetic medium rather than a neutral tool.

The artist exhibited internationally across North America, Europe, Asia, and Australia, including presentations at venues and platforms associated with electronic and media art, XR, and interdisciplinary research. Her interactive art installations, sculptures, and screen-based works have been exhibited globally, including Kulturzentrum Faust (Germany), Beakerhead Festival (Canada), ACM Multimedia (Australia), ISEA (Canada, Australia), Ukraine Gallery (Decentraland), MetaHistory: Museum of War (Decentraland), NAC 2023 (New Art City), Pavilion 04 Arsenale Nord (Venice’22), and Ars Electronica’23 (Austria).

Kryzhanivska’s artworks combine custom software, real-time rendering, generative algorithms, electronics, and fabricated sculptural forms. She works with game engines, creative coding, AR/VR/XR frameworks, and embedded systems alongside traditional sculptural methods, including 3D modeling, digital fabrication, and installation. Her technical practice emphasizes human-machine collaboration as hands-on authorship in design, sculpting, physical components, and computer code. She has participated in multiple artist residencies and collaborative art–science initiatives, contributing to experimental and research-driven creative communities.

As an educator, Kryzhanivska teaches across undergraduate and graduate levels, mentoring students in sculpture, creative coding, XR, and experimental media. She is particularly interested in supporting students who want to bridge art, technology, and critical inquiry to prepare them for creative research, interdisciplinary collaboration, and emerging practices in contemporary art and design.

Links

Recent & Selected Works

Many tall and floating sculptures of heads and torsos, in a environment resembling a Greco-Roman temple. Vibrant dark teal, blue, pink and red.
‘Matter of Orientation’ (screen grab in Meta Quest headset) interactive VR narrative game at the HF Johnson Gallery, 2025
A woman wearing a virtual reality headset, looking down. She stands in front of other various art pieces.
‘Matter of Orientation’ (installation view) interactive VR narrative game at the HF Johnson Gallery, 2025
Amorphous sculpture resembling the flesh-colored, morphing body of a bug on a blue pedestal
‘Protoforms (Wet Nurse)’, 3D printed polylactic acid, resin, 16 x 17 x 12 in, 2024
Digital overlay of a man laying down against rocks with many fractal colors
‘Reflection in the Shiny Copper of My Door’, HD single channel video with sound, 6:41 min, 2024
Screens displaying two heads merged together (left) and a rotated brain (right) with pink, flesh-like frames
‘Merged in Sync’ mixed reality sculptural installation, microcomputers, displays, 3D printed polylactic acid, paint, web AR
Two digital merged heads in gray and pink over rocks on the shores of a lake or ocean
‘Merged in Sync’ (AR detail) mixed reality sculptural installation, microcomputers, displays, 3D printed polylactic acid, paint, web AR

Artistic Exhibitions & Artwork

  • Kryzhanivska, Oksana et. al. Contours of Recovery - Digital Art Festival. December 2025, Poltava Region Central Library, Poltava, Ukraine
  • Kryzhanivska, Oksana and Cheung, Zhiwan. Cybernetic Sensorium. August - October 2025, H.F. Johnson Gallery of Art, Kenosha, WI
  • Kryzhanivska, Oksana et. al. Marais DigitARt. September 2024, Galerie Charlot, Paris, France
  • Kryzhanivska, Oksana et. al. Extended Dwelling – A Field Investigation from Shizimen to Canal dos Patos. September - October 2024, Ox Warehouse, Macau, China
  • Kryzhanivska, Oksana and Cheung, Zhiwan. Matter of Orientation @ Ars Electronica. September 2023, Linz, Austria
  • Kryzhanivska, Oksana et. al. Licht Zeit Labor II. 2023, Kulturzentrum Faust, Hannover, Germany
  • Kryzhanivska, Oksana. Crystals of Memory @ New Art City Festival’23, New Art City, NYC/online, https://newart.city/show/memory
  • Kryzhanivska, Oksana. Fields of Belonging in Decentralized Landscape. 2022, Xu Yu Huang Bian Art Space, Zhuhai, China
  • Kryzhanivska, Oksana et. al. Beyond Time and Code. October 2022, Spazio Thetis - Arsenale Nord of Venice, Venice, Italy
  • Kryzhanivska, Oksana et. al. Oil Blood Liberty. 2022, Kulturzentrum Faust, Hannover, Germany

Publications

  • Cheung, Z., Kryzhanivska, O., Hui, P.. A Matter of Orientation: Interactive Artwork Recasting Historical Artifacts in Latent Reality. In Proceedings of the 29th International Symposium on Electronic Art (ISEA), Brisbane, Australia, June 2024. Full paper.
  • Oksana Kryzhanivska, Jeff Boyd, and Simon Fay. Disturbed System: Recreating Sculptor’s Experience of Their Medium With Haptics and Generated Sound. Short paper and exhibition at ACM Multimedia (ACM MM), Brisbane, Australia, 2015
  • Oksana Kryzhanivska, Jeff Boyd, and Simon Fay. Sensory Reload: Group Interaction with Touchable Sculpture. Short paper and exhibition at the demo session at International Symposium on Electronic Art (ISEA), Vancouver, Canada, 2015
  • Oksana Kryzhanivska and Jeff Boyd. Body Topography: Simulating Human Form. Full paper at International Symposium on Mixed and Augmented Reality (ISMAR), Atlanta, USA, 2012