Voloshyn Gallery is proud to present a solo show “Several Stories and Objects” by Lesia Khomenko.

The exhibition is structured as a total installation and constructed as a data-dense space.

The objects (paintings) presented in the exposition tell the stories united by the motif of Crimea. The paintings’ protagonists can be provisionally subdivided into the two opposing camps. The first group is comprised of the artist’s friends, the public figures born in Crimea who have left the peninsula. The second group represents the Russian cultural figures who cannot legally enter Ukraine because they visited Crimea after the annexation. This list of artists is published on the Ministry of Culture of Ukraine website. The protagonists forced to share the space enact a range of polemics that are not limited to their “group” identity.

The word “object” in the show’s title is not accidental. Khomenko depicts the people (those she knows and those she doesn’t, with and without permission) who, having entered the space of a canvas, no longer represent themselves, becoming vehicles for the artist’s story. The characters of these paintings are akin to actors playing in a film or a show. Khomenko tests whether her objects can contain all the information, telling non-linear stories and relying on the uncompromising facticity of their materiality. This narrative attempt is a response to the unflagging media chatter and the influx of the large volume of data where it might be hard to tell the truth and fiction apart.

In “Several Stories and Objects,” Khomenko continues her programmatic work with deconstructing figurative imagery. The artist uses stretchers, objects, canvases, biflex fabric and netting to literally divide the paintings’ characters from the background, and to offer ironic commentary on the traditional painterly technique of glazing.

The painter Alevtyna Kakhidze is the show’s guest star, contributing her drawing. Kakhidze created it in 2001 during a plein-air retreat in Simeiz (Crimea), in which she participated with Khomenko.

Lesia Khomenko was born 1980 in Kyiv, where she lives and works now. She graduated from the National Academy of Fine Art and Architecture in 2004. Co-founder and member of the R.E.P. group since 2004. She was the artist-in-residence at the Center for Contemporary Art at the Kyiv-Mohyla Academy in 2005-2006, and at LIA (Leipzig International Art Program) in 2008. A member of the curatorial group HUDRADA since 2008. Her works have been exhibited at many solo and group shows, including the main project of the 1st Kyiv Biennale of Contemporary Art Arsenale in 2012, at the National Art Museum of Ukraine in Kyiv, at the White Box Gallery in New York, at MUMOK in Vienna, and at Zachęta Gallery in Warsaw. Lesia Khomenko was shortlisted for PinchukArtPrize in 2009, 2011 and 2013, and for Future Generations Art Prize with the R.E.P. group in 2012 (both founded by Victor Pinchuk). She was nominated for the Kazimir Malevich Artist Award in 2012 and 2016.

Founded in October 2016 by Max and Julia Voloshyn, Voloshyn Gallery specializes in contemporary art. In 2015, the Voloshyns made it to the Forbes’ 30 Under 30 list.

Voloshyn Gallery showcases a broad range of media in contemporary art, hosting solo and group exhibitions. 

Voloshyn Gallery fosters the integration of Ukrainian art into global cultural processes, representing its artists at international art fairs and shows in Europe and the US. Voloshyn Gallery aims to discover exceptional talent, with particular focus on emerging and mid-career artists.

Voloshyn Gallery’s priorities include participation in leading contemporary art fairs. Over the course of the last two years, the gallery has participated in Volta NY, Volta Basel, viennacontemporary, Dallas Art Fair and Pulse Art Fair. The latter brought Zhanna Kadyrova's solo show presented by Voloshyn Gallery the Pulse Prize (2018), as well as the award of Perez Art Museum Miami.

Voloshyn Gallery is a cutting-edge exhibition space located in Kyiv’s cultural and historical center, on Tereshchenkivska Street, in a historic 1913 building formerly owned by a renowned entrepreneur and philanthropist N.A. Tereshchenko. 

Voloshyn Gallery

Kyiv, 13 Tereshchenkivska Str., enter the 2nd courtyard through the archway

+38 067 467 00 07, +38 044 234 14 27, www.voloshyngallery.art, info@voloshyngallery.art

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