Carmella & Mika Haykowsky: Portrait Over Portrait Following the Matrilineal Line

FEB 27, 2025 to APR 12, 2025

Alberta Council for the Ukrainian Arts presents

Carmella & Mika Haykowsky
Portrait Over Portrait Following the Matrilineal Line
A Mother/Daughter Art Exhibit

An ACUA Signature Artist Series Event

February 27 – April 12, 2025

Opening Reception
Thursday February 27, 6:30 p.m. – 8:00 p.m. with presentation at 7:00 p.m.

Carmella & Mika Haykowsky have been collaborating as artists since 2015. Their projects revolve around memory, portraiture, and feminine subjectivity. In 2012, Mika Haykowsky’s inaugural art exhibit was alongside her mother in a duo exhibition. In 2022 they celebrated their 10 year artist anniversary and exhibited another duo show. Portrait Over Portrait: Following the Matrilineal Line will be their first exhibition of collaborative work.

“Portrait Over Portrait: Following the Matrilineal Line is an ancestral exploration following Ukrainian heritage in our matrilineal line. We are exploring loved ones from memory, imagining the faces and activities of passed relatives, as well as referencing old photos. Through this work we are making meaning from our family history. In oil, watercolor, pastel, crayon, graphite, and collage, we are experimenting with our mother-daughter-artist relationship. We respond to each other’s work, give each other prompts, and even co-create on the same canvas. We are also exploring self-portraiture and examining characteristics that have been passed down, noticing similarities and idiosyncrasies particular to the Haykowsky line. Through portraiture we are documenting stories of the women who came before us. These paintings are a way of bringing them to life and celebrating them.”

-Artists Carmella and Mika

This exhibition is dedicated to Carmella and Mika’s recently deceased mother and grandmother, Dolores Haykowsky (January 21, 1936 – May 7, 2023).

Carmella Haykowsky is an Edmonton artist and art instructor. She studied Painting and Printmaking in the BFA program at the University of Alberta for 3 years. She graduated with a Bachelor of Arts with a major in Chinese Language and Literature and a minor in Art History. Carmella also studied Chinese calligraphy and brush painting in Taipei, Taiwan. She has taken many workshops from visiting artists. Her current art practice is mainly in painting.

Carmella works in series to explore a theme or subject. Some of the series she has created are: A Quiet Corner and a Good Book; Figure in a Room – Covid; Repose -The Figure at Rest; Gypsy Dancer; Grandmothers; Floral Abstractions; Colour and Brush -Post Impressionist Still life; Edmonton River Valley Views. She is currently working on a series of figurative paintings based on her family. She has shown her art in solo and group shows, local cafes and community galleries.

Carmella has been teaching oil and acrylic painting classes and workshops for adults in the community for over 10 years.