Svitlana Motyl: Twenty Years Of Nail Design In Paris

(MENAFN- USA Art News) The Ukrainian-born, Chicago-based nail artist showed two works at Beauty is Art Edition II, held October 12 at HD Contemporary Art Gallery.

Svitlana Motyl has been doing nails professionally since 2005. On October 12, 2026, two of her works hung at HD Contemporary Art Gallery, 45 Rue Vivienne, in Paris. The occasion was Beauty is Art Edition II, an exhibition that presents the work of makeup, hair and nail professionals as visual art.

Both of her works were shown in the Nail Art Section.

20 Years Within Me

First piece of art is a self-portrait. She created it from more than 1100 of small photographs of nail designs she has made since 2005, arranged so that together they form her face.

Stand close and you see individual manicures, with the colors and techniques of particular years. Step back a few meters and they merge into a portrait. Motyl designed the piece to be read at both distances.

In her artist statement she writes that each design holds a piece of her path and her memories. The face in the portrait is made entirely of her own work.

Beyond the Lines

The second piece is a set of miniature nail compositions. Her works here with heavy graphic lines, saturated color and motifs taken from several cultural traditions.

She describes it as a work about individuality, cultural diversity and freedom of expression. Her question is whether a fingernail, a surface most people never think of as a canvas, can carry ideas about identity and tradition. The series argues that it can.

4.59 Meters of Resilience

The third piece is a collective work. On May 30, 2026, at Premiere Orlando, Motyl and nine other Ukrainian nail artists working in the United States built a single nail extension 4.59 meters long. It took them three hours.

The form was inspired by Mriya, the Ukrainian cargo aircraft. Once finished, the extension was worn for more than an hour. The project was about what a team can make that one artist cannot.

Twenty Years in the Industry

Since 2005 Svitlana has competed, taught, judged and developed her own techniques. Today she is based in Chicago.

She has won awards at Nailympia and the Global Talent Beauty Cup. She is also an IBATJ Level 5 Certified Judge. She has judged Nailympia, the Global Talent Beauty Cup, GABI and IEEBA, scoring competitors on both artistic concept and technical execution.

Earlier in 2026 she competed for Ukraine's national team at OMC Hairworld in Paris, in the Ladies Salon Manicure Design category, and received an Honor Award.

She teaches as well. Her manicure methods, S Fast and Safe & Release, are taught to other professionals, and she is a regional trainer with the Union of Beauty Industry Professionals of Ukraine.

The Size of the Canvas

In Paris, three sides of Svitlana Motyl's work were on view together: a self-portrait made of her career, miniatures about culture, and a collective piece built with her colleagues. Most manicures leave nothing behind but a photograph. Here, twenty years of those photographs became an art statment. As she puts it, the size of the canvas does not limit the scale of an idea.

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