Welcome Spring With Watercolor & Ink At Ocean City Arts Center

OCEAN CITY, NJ — Welcome spring in with the watercolor and ink works of Russian-American artist Olga Nenazhivina at the Ocean City Arts Center.

“Watercolor & Ink: Olga Nenazhivina” opens March 3 and runs through March 28. A “Meet the Artist” reception will be held on Friday, March 14 from 7 p.m. to 8:30 p.m. The Gallery is located in the Ocean City Arts Center, 1735 Simpson Ave., 2nd Floor.

Olga Nenazhivina is a Russian–American artist originally from Saratov in southern Russia. In the 1970s, her family moved to Vladivostok, near the borders of China and Japan. In 1985, she earned her Bachelor of Fine Arts from Vladivostok College for the Arts. Since then, her work has been exhibited extensively both domestically and internationally. She currently lives and works in the United States.

Her drawings are compact worlds of carefully orchestrated line and form. Though she work in various media, ink and paper have become her most trusted companions. She say, each sheet of paper carries its own rhythm and history— grain, texture, subtle tonal shifts. With regular pens, the line remains uniform, but when she employs a dip pen the pen glides, meanders, and asserts itself. Then, in an almost meditative flow, human figures, masks, ornamental motifs, marine and botanical shapes emerge, merging into an intricate yet intuitive interplay of imagery.

Nenazhivina says, “My passion for drawing began in early childhood, nurtured by an artistic lineage. My mother, an art enthusiast, ensured creativity was woven into every corner of our home. My father, Valery Nenazhivin — a Merited Artist of Russia renowned for creating the first sculpture of Osip Mandelshtam, an influential 20th-century Russian poet with Jewish heritage — taught me the importance of pushing boundaries, even in times when art faced great challenges. From them, I learned the essentials of composition, discipline, and the courage to explore. Over time, the gesture of drawing became both a ritual and a necessity, a means to translate the pulse of life onto paper.”

Hours of operation are 9 a.m. to 9 p.m., Monday through Friday and 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. on Saturday. The Arts Center is closed on Sunday. For further information, call (609) 399-7628. Check out the Ocean City Arts Center’s website at oceancityartscenter.org and/or on Facebook and Instagram.