ABOUT THE ARTIST
Valentyna Zhytnyk
is an artist, professionally trained gemologist, and jewelry designer with long-term hands-on experience working with materials. Her career has been consistently shaped by working with diamonds, precious and semi-precious gemstones, as well as natural minerals. Throughout her professional path, she created jewelry pieces by hand, combining design vision with deep technical knowledge of gemstones.
Her study of minerals took place directly at their natural origins — at mining sites across the world. Valentyna’s travels include key gemological regions:
Myanmar (Burma) — rubies and jadeite,
Thailand — ruby-producing regions,
Sri Lanka — sapphires,
Brazil — emerald deposits,
USA, California — natural tourmalines mines.
This direct exposure shaped her understanding of gemstones as living material — defined by structure, origin, and inner potential.
Her artistic career developed through several stages. The first was rooted in classical painting. During this period, she worked primarily with oil paints and gouache, creating figurative compositions featuring animals and symbolic imagery, developed through her own painterly techniques.
After relocating to the United States, her artistic language underwent a profound transformation. Changes in environment and inner perception redirected her practice toward interior works and spatial compositions. During this American period, she moved away from classical painting and began integrating gemstones with natural and organic elements, including minerals, textures, and dried botanical materials. Her paintings gradually evolved into art objects.
This evolution led to the creation of Art of Gems — a project where gemstones serve as the core of each composition. Today, Valentyna works exclusively with interior art objects, which she defines as an “interior of the soul.”
At present, Art of Gems includes three collections:
• Talisman
• Intuition
• Fantasy
Each artwork is built around a carefully selected gemstone, chosen for its origin, structure, and conceptual alignment. Art of Gems brings together gemological expertise, artistic practice, and a conscious relationship with material.
