Oleh Tatarynov — set designer, theatre costume designer, painter

Oleh Tatarynov (born 1978) is a set designer, painter, student of Danilo Lider, and long-time curator of the D. Lider Triennial of Set Design. His name is associated with a number of landmark theatre projects implemented throughout Ukraine.

In 1996, he graduated from the Taras Shevchenko State Art School. He continued his studies at the National Academy of Fine Arts and Architecture, where he studied painting and scenography in the workshops of Danylo Lider and Alla Kyrychenko until 2002. In 2003, he became one of the first Ukrainian participants in the prestigious Gaude Polonia scholarship programme of the Polish Minister of Culture, which he attended at the Krakow Higher Theatre School (PWST Krakow).

He began his professional career in theatre in 1998, and since 2005 has been associated with the Kyiv Academic Theatre for Young Audiences on Lipky. Performances for children and teenagers occupy a special place in Oleg Tatarinov's work. The artist opposes a simplistic approach to this genre. He emphasises that children's performances are no less significant than those for adults, as they raise issues that appeal to the depths of every person's psychology, regardless of age. According to the artist, the line between the so-called "children's" and "adult" repertoire is arbitrary, because true theatrical art always appeals to universal values, experiences and meanings.

In recent years, the artist has been actively collaborating with a new generation of directors and theatre stages. At the Dramicom Theatre (Dnipro), he designed the set for the play Exit, based on Serhiy Maren's play Allo (director Margo Savenko, 2022), worked on the set design for Lesya Ukrainka's Cassandra (director Oleksiy Kleimenov, 2023), and created the visual design for the play Scrooge and the Christmas Miracle based on Oscar Wilde (director Serhiy Mazaniy, 2023) and the comedy Madame Rubinstein (director Ihor Matyiv, 2024). In 2023, he designed the production of Five Songs of Polissya by Lyudmila Tymoshenko (director Igor Matyiv) at the T. Shevchenko Chernihiv Regional Academic Theatre, and the following year, Gone with the Wind by the same author at the Donetsk Regional Academic Drama Theatre (Mariupol).

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At the Lviv Quadrennial of Scenography 2025 Oleh Tatarynov presented sketches for the play  Peter Pan based on the work of Scottish writer James Barrie. The premiere took place on 9 November 2024, marking the centenary of the Kyiv Academic Theatre for Young Audiences in Lypky. The play raises important questions about growing up and choosing between carefree eternity and returning home.

Also presented is a model of the set design for the play "Five Songs of Polissya" (Chernihiv Regional Academic Theatre named after T. Shevchenko, 2023) based on the work of contemporary playwright Lyudmila Tymoshenko. In this layout, the central focus is on the skeleton of a dinosaur, around which five stories unfold — from 1940 to the present day. An important question arises: which is the greater evil — the dinosaur or the people who killed it?