About this Event
We warmly invite you to celebrate the opening of Love, Life & the Other Circus, a solo exhibition by award-winning Brisbane-based artist Olga Bakhtina.
Spend the evening exploring a vibrant collection of paintings filled with imaginative characters, unexpected encounters and stories that move between reality and fantasy.
About the Exhibition
Life is a curious kind of circus. We fall in love, play our parts, wear our masks, make choices, dream, and sometimes find ourselves in situations we could never have imagined.
In Love, Life & the Other Circus, Olga Bakhtina explores human relationships, emotions and the beauty and absurdity of everyday life.
The exhibition brings together women and animals, lovers and dreamers, Venetian scenes, interiors and circus characters. Some paintings are playful and humorous, others more mysterious. Through expressive brushwork, vibrant colour, bold patterns and simplified forms, Bakhtina creates imaginative compositions where familiar subjects take on unexpected meanings.
Each painting offers a glimpse into a story without a fixed beginning or end, inviting viewers to bring their own interpretations and imagination.
About the Artist
Olga Bakhtina is an award-winning Brisbane-based artist working primarily in oil and charcoal. Born in Russia, she began her formal art education in Oman before continuing her studies in Australia under Archibald Prize winner David Paulson. In 2024, she graduated with a degree in Art History from the University of Queensland.
Her work draws inspiration from European modernism, particularly the École de Paris and Fauvism, as well as Early Renaissance painting. She has exhibited regularly in Australia since 2012, and her paintings are held in public and private collections in Australia and internationally.
Opening Evening
Celebrate the opening of Love, Life & the Other Circus with us at Creative Room Art Space on Saturday, 7 November, from 5 to 7 pm.
Enjoy an evening of art and conversation and experience Olga Bakhtina's distinctive world of colour, characters and storytelling.
Free entry. Registration recommended.
Saturday, 7 November 2026 | 5–7 pm
Creative Room Art Space | 15 Dornoch Terrace, West End
Event venue & nearby stays
Creative Room Art Space, 15 Dornoch Terrace, West End, Australia