Oksana Mas is a skillful Ukrainian artist who makes beautiful portraits without using your standard canvas and paint brushes. Instead, she uses hand-painted wooden eggs to assemble incredible mosaics that are sure to take your breath away. Just recently, Mas created several Easter egg mosaics for the Venice Biennale. She was inspired by the old Ukrainian folk custom krashenki, where wooden eggs were covered in traditional Ukrainian designs to celebrate Easter.
She calls her monumental installation Post-vs-Proto-Renaissance. Featuring twelve separate pieces and made up of a total of 3,640,000 wooden eggs, the installation is a sight to behold! Don't worry, she doesn't paint these eggs herself. In fact, they are all hand-painted by people in 42 different countries and from all walks of life.
From up close, the varying designs on the eggs can be admired individually. Stand a few feet back, however, and you're in for quite the surprise!
The eggs come together to form a large scale representation of the Ghent Altarpiece, which was painted by the Van Eyck brothers. They're currently on display inside the Church of San Frantin in Venice.
Mas has done an impeccable job of integrating a familiar tradition with her passion for art!
