Oleh Minko is a Ukrainian nonconformist artist representing "hermetic" art. He created images with a double meaning, where he narrated the theme of the work through the symbols of objects and human gestures. The style of his paintings is influenced by ancient Ukrainian iconography and European modernists: Pablo Picasso, Georges Braque, and Giorgio de Chirico. Oleg Minko's works are kept in state museums of national importance in Ukraine and private collections in Ukraine and abroad. The artist had personal exhibitions in London, Helsinki, Brussels, Copenhagen, Washington, and Vilnius.
"Gloom" echoes the series "Life of Masks." In the center of the artist's reflections is a person, the tragedy of his existence. Oleh Minko's symbolic paintings show the world of his time and its changing state. The mask reflects the artist's existential search. He fills the composition with many deformed, surrealistic figures, pointing to the decline of society and the lack of understanding of where to go next.