2D

Illustrations, paintings, graphics. Static and animated.

Majorana
Physics | AAAS Science | 2023

Painted portrait illustration of physicist Ettore Majorana, dramatically lit and partially in shadow, with anyons / Majorana fermions orbiting around him. Art by Olena Shmahalo for Science Magazine / AAAS.
MajoranaPhysics | AAAS Science | 2023

Animals
SFF | 2023

Stylized illustration of six animals. Top-left: A Tyrannosaurus rex surveys the others from behind ferns & foliage. Top-right: A manatee holds a potion bottle as a wave curls around & over him. Middle: A Velociraptor peeks over the top of a graphical, pink TV displaying a beach scene; its claw grips one edge. A Ragdoll cat & puffin relax on a cushion in front of the TV. Bottom-right: Standing amidst ferns & cycads, a huge Stegosaurus looks up at the other creatures.
AnimalsSFF | 2023

Black Hole Circuitry
Physics / CompSci | Quanta | 2023

Crop: Stylized illustration of a black hole in space with glowing purple circuitry wrapping the inner sphere.
Black Hole CircuitryPhysics / CompSci | Quanta | 2023

Visible Matter
Physics | Symmetry | 2023

Crop: Stylized painting of earth in space inside a gold, radial compass design and surrounded by gold telescope icons, followed by clustered galaxies and CMB patterns at the outer edges.
Visible MatterPhysics | Symmetry | 2023

The Path
SciFi | 2023

Crop: Stylized illustration in iridescent colors — a starry path going toward a funnel-shaped portal, surrounded by floating icosahedron bubbles containing galaxies.
The PathSciFi | 2023

Extragalactic Neutrinos
Physics | Symmetry | 2023

Stylized painting of neutrinos traveling from an AGN or supernova and plunging into a dark blue sea, producing Cherenkov radiation (conical blue light) underwater.
Extragalactic NeutrinosPhysics | Symmetry | 2023

Neutrino Archery: MINERvA
Physics | Symmetry | 2023

Close-up of an illustration: a proton's interior — 3 quarks.
Neutrino Archery: MINERvAPhysics | Symmetry | 2023

Black Hole Labs
Physics | IAS Cover | 2022

Photo of the cover of IAS: The Institute Letter. Featuring art of a black hole laboratory in a retro-futuristic style.
Black Hole LabsPhysics | IAS Cover | 2022

Black Hole Gyroscope
Physics | Quanta | 2022

Painting of a gold armillary sphere on a beige background, containing a blue galaxy and a spherical black hole at its center. Gears are faintly visible beneath the galaxy.
Black Hole GyroscopePhysics | Quanta | 2022

Herding Big Data
Neuroscience | Simons Fdn. | 2023

Close-up of a painting: multicolored cats tangled up in yarn, forming a network graph.
Herding Big DataNeuroscience | Simons Fdn. | 2023

NANOGrav Astrophysics
Physics | NANOGrav | 2022

Triptych: 3D art of a pulsar shooting out colorful jets, stars & galaxies in a petri dish showing the evolution of the universe, & planet Earth surrounded by telescopes, pulsars, & binary black hole systems.
NANOGrav AstrophysicsPhysics | NANOGrav | 2022

Dark Photons
Physics | Symmetry | 2022

Painting of small figures carrying spheres through a portal, representing photons. As they cross the threshold, the characters and spheres turn from dark to light.
Dark PhotonsPhysics | Symmetry | 2022

COVID Changed the World
Biology | SciAm Cover | 2022

Scientific American cover: How COVID Changed the World
COVID Changed the WorldBiology | SciAm Cover | 2022

The Lawnmower Man
SciFi | Inverse | 2022

Illustration: a silhouetted man with hand outstretched toward a flaming lawnmower.
The Lawnmower ManSciFi | Inverse | 2022

Tower of Infinities
Math | Quanta | 2021

Painting: an infinite white tower in a fantastical landscape, growing in size as it spirals upwards.
Tower of InfinitiesMath | Quanta | 2021

Gödel's Tower
Math | Quanta | 2020

Fantasy painting: a white tower made of blocks with mathematical symbols, floating in the sky.
Gödel's TowerMath | Quanta | 2020

Siphonaptera
Science | 2020

Painting: on a yellow background, a starling carries a eukaryotic cell being entered by a prokaryote, with DNA, electron orbitals, particles, and trefoil knots trailing off of it.
SiphonapteraScience | 2020

Tracy-Widom Universality
Math / Physics | Quanta | 2014

Black and white graphic: interconnected symbols related to ideas in math and universality, arranged in a circle. Centered in the circle is the Tracy-Widom Distribution, symbolized by bell curves.
Tracy-Widom UniversalityMath / Physics | Quanta | 2014

© Olena Shmahalo