Oleg Shuplyak’s Astonishing Hidden Figures Paintings (45 photos)

Oleg Shuplyak hidden figure paintings on if its hip its here
Oleg in his studio with his Van Gogh Double Portrait painting

An architect by day and a master of illusion in his off time, Ukranian Oleg Shuplyak, aka MrOlik, uses his technical skills as a trained architect to paint surreal optical illusions that contain portraits of other artists, authors and historical figures.

Oleg Shuplyak’s Hidden Figures Paintings

Oleg Shuplyak, Self-portrait
Oleg Shuplyak, Self-portrait, Under The Lime Trees, 2011

His Hidden Figures series includes work as early as 1992 through as recently as 2015. What at first appear to be classical paintings of figures in landscapes, they conceal a second image of a larger human face, easier to see when viewed from afar.

hidden figure paintings by Oleg Shuplyak
When reduced in size it is easier to see the hidden figure

HIDDEN FIGURES / ARTISTS
Mind-blowing are his optical illusion homages to past Masters and Impressionists, which Shuplyak rendered in each artist’s particular style. He has taken paintings (in some case more than one) by well-known artists such as Van Gogh, Dali and Renoir – to name a few- and added his “Hidden Figures” while retaining the original artist’s manner of execution.

Leonardo da Vinci:
hidden figures in painting
Oleg Shuplyak paintings

Bougereau:
Oleg Shuplyak paintings

Dali:
Dali by Oleg Shuplyak
dali portrait by Oleg Shuplyak, Self-portrait

Cezanne:
cezanne painted by Oleg Shuplyak

Gauguin:
gaugin painting by Oleg Shuplyak

Ivan Aivazovsky:
artist Oleg Shuplyak

Rembrandt:
Oleg Shuplyak artworks

Renoir:
renoir hidden in painting
Oleg Shuplyak renoir

Monet:
Monet hidden in painting by Oleg Shuplyak
Oleg Shuplyak paintings with hidden figures

Michaelangelo:
michelangelo painted by Oleg Shuplyak

Nicholas Roerich:
illusion paintings

Van Gogh:
van gogh in van gogh by Oleg Shuplyak

HIDDEN FIGURES / SCIENTISTS & INVENTORS
Other Hidden Figure paintings of Shuplyak’s reference the discoveries of historical inventors and scientists.

Darwin:
Darwin painting

Newton:
Newton painting by Oleg Shuplyak

Copernicus:
Copernicus painting by Oleg Shuplyak

Gallileo:
Galilleo portrait by Oleg Shuplyak

Nostradamus:
Nostradamus painting with hidden figures

Freud:
Freud painting with hidden figure

HIDDEN FIGURES / AUTHORS & POETS
His homages to novelists, playwrights and poets reference a particular work as well as the author.

Shakespeare:
shakespeare portrait painting

Hemmingway: (Old Man and The Sea, Snows of Kilimanjaro)
Hemmingway old man and the sea

Hans Christian Anderson (The Little Mermaid):
hand christian anderson Little Mermaid painting

Tolstoy: (Anna Karenina)
Tolstoy Anna Karenina painting

Nikolai Gogol:
russian painter who hides figures in art

John Lennon: (Imagine)
John Lennon Imagine painting portrait

Stakhnevich:
Stakhnevich portrait painted

Kozbar (poetry of Taras Shevchenko):

Lesya Ukrainka: (Forest Song)

Theodore Sturgeon:
russian paintings with hidden figures

In addition to the above, there are these 10 more HIDDEN FIGURES paintings with whose subjects I am not familiar:

illusion art

The artist’s works are located in collections at the National Museum of Taras Shevchenko in Kyiv, Ministry of Ukrainian Culture in Kyiv, International Foundation “Cultural Heritage” in Saint Petersburg, Russia and also in many private collections in several countries of the world.

His originals range from $3,000- $9,000 and can be purchased here.

Oleg Shuplyak

All images courtesy of the artist