I was born in Ukraine and graduated from Kyiv Shevchenko University with an M.S. degree in Radio-Physics. For 18 years, I worked at the Institute of Cybernetics, National Academy of Sciences in Kyiv, where I earned a Ph.D. degree in Optoelectronics. In 1994, I immigrated to Montreal, Quebec, Canada, where I worked in the high-tech industry as R&D Director, supervising a photonics research project in collaboration with local universities. In 2006, I joined a US company in San Jose, California, first as Business Development Director and later as Vice President of Operations. In my final two years, I worked as a sales engineer, selling semiconductor light sources and optical amplifiers. Throughout my career as a researcher, I authored over 50 papers in peer-reviewed journals, three book chapters, and secured two US Patents. I retired in 2023.
During my time in Ukraine, I also studied traditional wood carving, particularly in the West-Ukrainian (Carpathian) region, renowned for its master wood carvers. Soon after, wood sculpture became my hobby, and I developed my own designs for wooden bowls and vases, refining both designs and skills over many years. Wood carving has since become my creative sanctuary.
My works explore the beauty and character inherent in wood, often influenced by environmental conditions during the tree’s growth and wood storage. In this regard, wood is akin to a person: stress and living conditions contribute to developing interesting character in both. Much of the wood used in my sculptures is salvaged, repurposed from fallen trees in the Bay Area, granting them a second life in a new form.
Much of the inspiration in my work comes from the interest in Photonics and Nature. He has designed bowls using very unusual topologies borrowed from math and then carved them from a single piece of green wood working with soft and hard woods. My works searche the topologies of paradox: the contemporary in the traditional, the lightness in shape, the emptiness in mass, the fluidity of the solid, extended time in a moment. Reducing kilos of wood to essential shapes, his intricately carved bowls defy gravity and make possible that seems impossible. Inspired by the natural beauty of wood, he references its myriad of elegant organic forms, yet his work is not complete until abandoned to larger environments, emphasizing the intensity of his creative focus. Many shapes carved in wood later have been transferred into other materials, like bronze, concrete and glass. I am also working on applying my bowl design ideas to new furniture designs.
ART SHOWS AND EXHIBITIONS
2026: Juried Group Exhibition at Coastal Arts League Gallery; Half Moon Bay; Going Coastal; May – June;
2026: Silicon Valley Open Studios;
2025: Juried Group Exhibition at Sausalito Center for the Arts; October – November;
2025: Kings Mountain Art Fair;
2025: Silicon Valley Open Studios;
2024: Filoli Park Art Exhibition; July;
2024: Silicon Valley Open Studios;
2023: Juried Gallerium Annual Art Exhibition; on line;
2023: Juried Exhibizone International Exhibitions “Curves – 2023”; on line;
2019: Palo Alto Art Festival;
Mykola’s artworks can be found in private collections in Ukraine; Canada; USA, and can be acquired at 480 Lighthouse Gallery in Pacific Grove, CA at Saatchi Art: mykola kulishov – Google Search
https://www.paloaltoonline.com/ae/2024/05/02/silicon-valley-open-studios-returns-for-its-37th-year/https://www.mv-voice.com/ae/2024/05/02/silicon-valley-open-studios-returns-for-its-37th-year/