Contemporary Ukrainian art is versatile. However, some certain tendencies and themes untie many artists. For instance, researchers of contemporary art point out the “historiographical turn” that occurred in the 2010s.
Nikita Kadan, who was born in 1982 in Kyiv, works exactly with historiography and with socio-critical context. Kadan’s work appeals to the conscious position of the citizen in society and provokes active action. The essence of his works has a socio-critical direction, mostly focusing on negative phenomena, sometimes devoted to rethinking the country’s past, sometimes directly interfering in the course of life.
Lesia Khomenko, born in 1980 in Kyiv, in her works deconstructs narrative image and transforms paintings to the objects. The artist’s interest is in comparing history and myths and revealing tools of visual manipulation.
Vlada Ralko, born in 1969 in Kyiv, is one of the most famous expressionists in independent Ukraine. In her works, the artist often raises the questions of identity, relevant social and political contexts immersed in the existential depths of pain and suffering from a collective body.
The works of these three artists relate within themselves a lot. Both Lesia Khomenko and Vlada Ralko work with the body, but Ralko works with collective body, when Khomenko – with the individual body. Both Vlada Ralko and Nikita Kadan work with collective—collective body in case of Ralko and collective memory in case of Kadan. In addition, both Nikita Kadan and Lesia Khomenko work with deformation, social deformation in the works of Kadan and deformation of image in works of Khomenko.
In addition to the in-person exhibition, in online exhibition Voloshyn Gallery presents young emerging artists Kateryna Lisovenko and Illya Chernyshevskyi.