Press Kit — Olena Moloda & Moltenism
Can a painter invent a new medium? Ukrainian artist Olena Moloda spent years developing a transparent painting medium for canvas whose depth, gloss and controlled flow can recall molten coloured glass. She calls the resulting practice Moltenism.
Moltenism is both an original abstract painting technique and an artistic concept centred on transformation: the moment when material appears to melt, flow, fuse, separate, expand or become still. The work is created on canvas; it is not made from molten glass. The visual association with coloured glass comes from the medium’s transparency, luminosity, relief and fluid movement.
Press Summary
Olena Moloda is a contemporary Ukrainian artist based in Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, Spain, and the creator of Moltenism. Through years of material experimentation, she developed a transparent painting medium suitable for canvas that allows her to build translucent layers, glossy surfaces, raised lines, pools of colour and physical relief.
The process combines deliberate composition with controlled unpredictability. Olena determines the palette, structure, scale and overall direction of each work, while gravity, movement, pressure, timing, viscosity and the interaction between layers influence the final surface.
The exact formula of the medium remains part of the artist’s studio practice and is not published as a commercial recipe. What defines Moltenism publicly is not a secret formula, but the visual and conceptual language that has grown around the material: transparency, depth, movement, transformation and the tension between artistic control and the natural behaviour of matter.
Moltenism in One Sentence
Moltenism is Olena Moloda’s original abstract painting technique and artistic concept, created on canvas using an artist-developed transparent painting medium.
What Makes the Technique Distinct
- Transparency: translucent and semi-transparent layers allow colour and depth to build without becoming visually opaque.
- Relief: raised lines, edges and textured areas give the surface a real three-dimensional presence.
- Gloss and changing light: different areas react differently to daylight and directional lighting, so the work can shift visually as the viewer moves.
- Controlled flow: gravity, movement, pressure and viscosity participate in the image rather than being fully suppressed.
- Unrepeatability: the artist can guide a composition, but the smaller material events cannot be reproduced mechanically in exactly the same way.
Why the Name “Moltenism”?
The name comes from the appearance and behaviour of the finished surface. Flowing contours, translucent colour, reflective gloss and layered depth can suggest material caught in a state of melting or transformation. At times the surface can resemble coloured or molten glass, but glass is a visual reference rather than the literal material of the painting.
The Editorial Story
Moltenism offers a story beyond a new body of abstract paintings. It raises a broader question that has followed artists throughout modern and contemporary art: what happens when an artist does not simply choose a medium, but develops one in order to create a visual language that existing materials do not provide?
For Olena, the starting point was material dissatisfaction. She was looking for a surface that could combine qualities she valued in different painting traditions: transparency associated with watercolour, visual depth and gloss associated with oil, and a relatively fast working rhythm closer to contemporary acrylic media. The solution emerged through experimentation rather than through an attempt to imitate a pre-existing technique.
That material research gradually became an artistic method. Instead of treating flow, gravity and viscosity as problems to eliminate, Moltenism incorporates them into the composition. The artist remains responsible for the major decisions, but the material is allowed to participate in the final form.
Editorial Angles
- Can a painter invent a new medium? A story about artistic material research and the development of Moltenism.
- Between control and chance: how gravity, viscosity and movement become part of the composition.
- Painting that behaves like matter: the relationship between transparency, relief, gloss and light.
- From Ukraine to Gran Canaria: the development of an independent contemporary art practice in Las Palmas de Gran Canaria.
- Why originals cannot be flattened into an image: how relief, transparency and changing reflections make physical viewing central to the work.
Short Bio — Olena Moloda
Olena Moloda is a contemporary Ukrainian artist based in Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, Spain. She is the creator of Moltenism, an original abstract painting technique and artistic concept developed through years of material experimentation. Working on canvas with an artist-developed transparent painting medium, she creates layered surfaces defined by translucency, gloss, relief, flowing lines and controlled unpredictability. Her practice explores transformation and the tension between artistic intention and the natural behaviour of material.
Extended Bio
Olena Moloda is a contemporary Ukrainian artist based in Las Palmas de Gran Canaria and the creator of Moltenism. Her practice grew from a long period of experimentation with painting materials and from a search for a surface that could combine transparency, depth, gloss, movement and a relatively fast working process on canvas.
She eventually developed a transparent painting medium that became the foundation of Moltenism. The technique allows her to create translucent layers, pools of colour, fine raised lines, glossy passages and physical relief. Gravity, pressure, viscosity, timing and the interaction between layers influence each work, creating a process in which composition is directed by the artist but not every detail is predetermined.
Moltenism is also a conceptual framework. Its central theme is transformation: states between solidity and fluidity, control and movement, tension and release. The finished works can visually recall molten or coloured glass, but they remain paintings on canvas rather than glass objects.
Olena works from MOLODA ART GALLERY, an independent contemporary art gallery and working studio in Las Palmas de Gran Canaria.
Ready-to-Quote Statements
On the process: “I decide the direction of the painting, but I do not try to force every movement of the material. Part of Moltenism is allowing the medium to behave naturally and then responding to what happens.”
On the name: “The word Moltenism came from the way the surface can look as if colour and matter have been caught in a moment of melting or transformation.”
On originality: “For me, the technique is not only about a material effect. The material changed the way I compose, the way I use light and the way I think about control inside a painting.”
These statements may be used as interview prompts or working quotations. For publication as direct quotations, please confirm wording with the artist.
Key Facts
- Artist: Olena Moloda
- Nationality: Ukrainian
- Based in: Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, Spain
- Practice: Contemporary abstract painting
- Technique / concept: Moltenism
- Support: Canvas
- Core material: Artist-developed transparent painting medium
- Visual characteristics: translucent layering, gloss, relief, flowing lines, pools of colour, changing reflections
- Central ideas: transformation, material behaviour, control and unpredictability, light, depth and movement
- Studio / gallery: MOLODA ART GALLERY, Las Palmas de Gran Canaria
Interview Topics
- How and why Olena began developing her own painting medium
- The stages of experimentation that led to Moltenism
- Where artistic control ends and material behaviour begins
- Why the exact formula remains part of the studio practice
- The influence of transparency, gloss and relief on composition
- Why Moltenism is difficult to understand from photographs alone
- How living and working in Gran Canaria has shaped the development of the practice
- The future direction of Moltenism as a body of work and artistic language
Images & Media
High-resolution artwork images, surface details, studio photographs, process images and short process video can be supplied for editorial use on request. Please contact the gallery for the appropriate files, captions and usage confirmation.
Suggested image credit: Artwork by Olena Moloda / Courtesy of MOLODA ART GALLERY.
For accurate captions, please request the title, dimensions, year and medium for each selected artwork before publication.
Useful Links
- What Is Moltenism? — detailed explanation of the technique and concept
- Moltenism Collection — current works by Olena Moloda
- About Olena Moloda & Walter Zakarlo
- MOLODA ART GALLERY in Las Palmas de Gran Canaria
Press & Interview Contact
MOLODA ART GALLERY
Calle Cirilo Moreno 5
35007 Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, Spain
Email: moloda.art@gmail.com
Phone / WhatsApp: +34 692 36 05 99
For interviews, studio visits, editorial image requests, publication fact-checking or additional background on Moltenism, please contact the gallery directly.