Design of The Year — Stanford University — 30 International Design Awards — Audi — Super Rare
Revealing the essence, breath, and taste of invisible substances that animate reality.
"I aspire to know of what is the basement for the objective world that lies behind the ghosts of humanity’s conscious concepts. I put my efforts to find the exact shape, taste, touch of that substances which animate reality. I question if this World could be objective after all. I raise my art against modern dominance of rationalism, against racism of objectivity, toward liberty of being non-measured, non-discovered, not-studied, not-rated, not-compared, not-classified, against totality of delusion that phenomena of Life and Human can be explained. I state that it is sealed secrets.”
Biological storm of wild expressionism that comes from deep senses of LIFE.
I perceive the digital environment as an idealistic space, inherently congruent with human consciousness. Within its “subconscious” and “non-narrative” affordances, I find the potential to articulate the phenomenology of existence. My focus lies in the philosophical and ontological reflection of computer technologies, examining their capacity to facilitate an experience of life equivalent with the transcendence of this phenomenon.

My practice simultaneously poses ontological inquiries and asserts emotional axiologies, identifying the structures of life’s essence where the answer often resides in a mystery that points toward the grandeur of Being. I encode concepts of socio-cultural and psychic life. In my view, every construct or phenomenon possesses its own mechanics and structure, constituting what Merab Mamardashvili termed an “organ of reality”—a specific form. I translate these meanings through abstraction: a direct proto-language of perception, stripped of conventional denotations. Thus, in this system, gold signifies not luxury but a universal—an aggressive statement of Being and a dimension perpendicular to mundane reality; a visual vertical becomes a dramatic intention or directedness (Vasily Kandinsky).

I seek forms for the phenomenology of existence: just as ontology describes the universal laws of Being, I employ abstraction to find the visual embodiment of life’s patterns. The digital space is the most appropriate medium for this: boundless and immaterial. It offers a spectrum of realization—from the idealistic and intangible (AR, VR, NFT) to the “corporeal” tangible phygital: 3D and unconventional 2D printing. I utilize an aesthetic of visual excess as an expression of the paradoxical complexity of modernity. It is a vibrating language encompassing the extreme scales of life’s spectrum—from the microscopic level of anatomy and micrographs to the macroscopic and cosmic—a language of life at scales revealed to us by technology.

I am interested in transcending the classical 2D Euclidean plane surface through 3D, curvilinear, and multidimensional spatial qualities. My objective is the invention of new modalities in art, that are living hybridizations of mediums: 2D, 3D, AR, physical particles integrated with the philosophical realm of ideas to comprehend and venerate the phenomenon of Life.
I do art illustrations and develop creative concepts for brands. During 15 years in the profession I worked in three countries and gained more than 30 prestigious design awards, including Design of the Year IDA (USA), Gold A’Design Award (Italy), Audi Best Practice, James Dyson Award and others. I’m a participant of design and art exhibitions in the USA, UK, Italy, Russia (including The Russian State Museum).

I worked with clients such as Audi and Stanford University, GenIII Oil Corporation and others. I led my own lecture series along with being invited speaker at renowned American and Canadian universities (Emily Carr University, Simon Fraser university, Louisiana State University). I hold my patent and produce design objects for brands and under my own label. Some of them gained viral popularity. Each of my design objects manifests creative concept: Sweater for people with Flaming hearts, Blanket for lovemaking, Mittens to like offline reality, Swimsuit that protects from drowning, 3d Digital sculpture-paintings as icons of LOVE.
  • 30+ DESIGN AWARDS
    top international design and art awards
  • 12 YEARS OF EXPERIENCE
    world-wide clients commisions, collabs and launching own projects
  • 20+ NOVELTY DESIGN INITIATIVES
    multi-and-cross-disciplinary aproach
  • 3 COUNTRIES
    of business experience
Selected awards
  • Grant Awarded, Canada Council for the Arts, 2025, Canada together with Metacreation Lab, VR immersive art sculpture “Respire 2.0”
  • Winner, ABI Award, Young Scientists Congress, Sirius, 2024, Russia phygital art object “Bio Radiance”
  • Product Design of the Year, IDA (2018) International Design Award, USA
  • Gold, IDA (2018) International Design Award, USA, Industrial And Life Science Design/Safety Designs
  • Gold, IDA (2018) International Design Award, USA, Outdoor and exercise Equipment, Leisure
  • Golden Prize, A-Design Award, Italy (2016).
  • Silver Prize, A-Design Award, Italy (2016).
  • Audi Best Practice Gallery Award, Russia (twice, 2013).
  • Design & Design International Award, 18 works awarded, France (2009 - 2014).
  • 1st Prize, Design Debut Competition, International Design School, Russia (2009).
  • 1st Prize, Space and Future of Humanity, Russian Space Agency Roscosmos, EU (2011).
  • 2nd Prize, James Dyson Award for inventors, National Winner, Great Britain/Russia (2012).
Selected publications
  • A'Design Book of the Year, Como, Italy, 2015-2016
  • Ciappesoni, A. Top Design, Book of the Year, Milan House, 2015.
  • Praquin, M., The Design and Design, Book of the Year, Volume 3, 5 Index Books, 2009-2011.
  • Praquin, M., The Design and Design, Book of the Year, Volume 6, 7 Index Books, 2012-2014.
  • Gimenez, M. European Product Design, Monsa Editor, 2013.
  • Designboom.com, Technology, "Uslon Concept Swimwear" 2016
  • European Product Design, Barcelona, Spain, 2013
  • Interior Magazine, New York, USA, Sept. 2011
  • "Gaze" on Magazine43 Cover / July 22, 2020
  • Marie Claire, Italia, 2013
  • Design for Today,Milan, Italy, 2013
  • Interview: IDA Design Award, 2020 En.idesignawards.com/2020/12/18/katerina-semenko-valery-graznov-semenko-design/
  • DPI Magazine, Taiwan, oct. 2010
  • Interview: Sobaka Ru, 2022 https://www.sobaka.ru/rnd/entertainment/art/144649
  • Inventors Digest, VOL. 32, issue 7
Selected artist talks
  • St. Petersburg International ECONOMIC FORUM SPIEF 2025 “Art, Technology, Meanings. What Will Remain Untouched by Machines” 2025
  • Emily Carr University of Art + Design, Vancouver, Canada - invited speaker for Professional Development lecture series.
  • Louisiana State University, Baton Rouge, LA, USA - "Salt of Design", course of six lectures, International Cultural Center, 2015
  • Simon Fraser University, lecture and public talk on Art in the series, Philosophers' Café
  • "Loop Lamp", Independent Broadcast Channel, Moscow, Russia
  • "Science Art Performance for Audi Centre", team performance, Rostov-on-Don, Russia
  • "Design: Fantastic Life of Creator", Personal Lecture, Saint-Petersburg
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