Agata Oleksiak or better known as Olek is a multi-disciplined artist from Poland. Her installations in the form of sculptures and more recognisably, crochet, have been seen and acclaimed by so many to the point where she has gained legendary status. Olek’s works are featured in the URBAN NATION 2018 exhibition, ‘UN-DERSTAND The Power of Art as a Social Architect’.

Born in Poland in 1978, her earlier education was based in her home country, where she received a BA in Cultural Studies from Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznan, Poland she then relocated to New York City, where she currently resides. Her earlier works involve sculptures, of which she has received the Ruth Melon Award for in 2004, though it was after this where she began to work with crochet, creating pieces to relay her message. Olek’s art and installations can be found across the globe, she has yarn-bombed cars, chained bicycles, trains, and even Wall Street’s Charging Bull statue. While her distinctive crochet moniker is a camouflage pattern in fluorescent, highlighted colours, her works have more recently, leant towards grey scale also.