Photos courtesy @chrystiachudczak
Akseniia Karpachova is an Ottawa-based Ukrainian artist, architect, teacher, and designer of the 2026 TSF Shevchenko Commemorative Bookmark.
Akseniia’s artwork reflects an academic arts education combined with many years of experience in architecture presented as a modern approach to painting.
Born in Donetsk, Ukraine, Akseniia received her first professional art education at the Donetsk Art College, where she studied for five years as a painter-teacher. Her diploma work in 1999 was selected for the funds of the Donetsk Art Museum and is periodically exhibited in museum exhibitions.
Akseniia continued her education at the Donetsk National Academy of Construction and Architecture, qualifying as an architect. In 2005, her diploma project won 2nd place in the competition of diploma architectural works. On the eve of the full-scale war, in 2021 Akseniia won an award for exemplary work in the field of architecture by the leadership of the Government of Ukraine.
When war came to her native Donetsk in 2014, she moved to Kyiv, where she worked as the Chief Project Architect and Head of the design department, creating and implementing a variety of large-scale public, residential and commercial facilities on behalf of various clients. These included restoring the Ukrainian House in Kyiv, the Kapitanivka Exhibition Car Centre, the Svitanok residential complex in Boryspil, a sports complex in Myronivka, an office and retail building in Belogorodka and others.
Relocating to Ottawa, Canada, due to the accelerated war in Ukraine in 2022 was not only a new professional challenge for Akseniia, but also a deeply personal situation. The events in Ukraine were extremely painful for her, and painting became a source of inner support, renewal, and strength. Through her work with color, form, and movement, Akseniia experienced the powerful effects of art therapy firsthand, which over time grew into a conscious artistic and pedagogical tool in her work and teaching.
In Ottawa, Akseniia has actively continued her artistic activities. In 2022, she won a competition for the artistic painting of two walls for Invest Ottawa, and in 2023 she successfully implemented this project. Since 2023, she has been a member of the UKRAINIAN CANADIAN ART FOUNDATION and participates in exhibitions in Canada.
She creates paintings for commission and sale, teaches art to children at the Lesia Ukrainka Ukrainian School of Ottawa, conducts master classes for children and adults, and organizes charitable art events in support of the Armed Forces of Ukraine.
Akseniia has created a special painting technique in Canada inspired by her personal experience as a mother of a competitive hockey player. Watching her son play hockey, Akseniia experimented with using a hockey stick as an artistic tool, combining movement, emotion and paint with acrylic and oil on canvas. Her hockey stick works are found in collections across Ottawa.
Throughout her experience and work, Akseniia Karpachova values the courage of imagining and implementing new ideas, the openness of experimentation and the transformational power of art, which is able not only to shape space, but also to heal a person.
