booth 2.08
Voloshyn Gallery is pleased to announce its participation in the first edition of The Salon by NADA & The Community, taking place from October 17–20, 2024, in Paris. We warmly invite you to visit our booth, 2.08, on the second floor, where we will be showcasing a selection of works on paper by female artists: Kateryna Lysovenko, Maria Sulymenko, Vlada Ralko, as well as photographs by Abi Shehu.
Kateryna Lysovenko presents her latest works on paper, delving into the histories of nations without imperial traditions, such as Armenia, Ukraine, and Tatar culture. Unlike the imperial mythos, where transformation into nature or mythical beings is seen as dehumanizing, these transformations in Lysovenko’s works signify resistance to violence, the loss of loved ones, and a refusal to accept injustice. For Lysovenko, the ability to dream is foundational to freedom. Her work draws on folklore, poetry, and art as tools for imagining what seems impossible today but may become reality tomorrow. She also explores the theme of mourning and memory, using symbols from nature — such as the viburnum and weeping willow trees — representing resilience, sorrow, and the preservation of memory amidst violence and war.
Maria Sulymenko’s watercolors draw viewers into enigmatic and surreal spaces, often depicting desolate interiors and isolated figures. Her minimalistic and dream-like settings convey a sense of timelessness, as if caught between past and future, reality and imagination. The melancholic mood of her works reflects an exploration of solitude, existential anxiety, and the fragility of human existence. Sulymenko’s practice doesn’t focus on a specific loss or pain but rather captures the overarching fragility of life. Her figures, seemingly frozen in a liminal space, evoke feelings of waiting and searching for meaning, while still clinging to hope for a brighter future. As she suggests, even in moments of deep uncertainty, there is always the anticipation of something better to come.
Vlada Ralko is known for her critical engagement with issues of identity, culture, and the body, often framed within socio-political contexts. In her Fashion Show series, Ralko explores the interplay between fashion, beauty standards, and the body. The rapid pace of fashion trends, which increasingly alienates the body and imposes new ideals upon it, is a central theme of her work. Ralko's sharp and incisive commentary critiques how fashion culture objectifies and fragments bodies, transforming them into mere mannequins or symbols. Her graphic works reflect on the absurdity of fashion's obsession with self-reproduction, pushing the boundaries of how we perceive the human form in the face of cultural and aesthetic pressures.
The Ritournelle of Narta series by Abi Shehu presents a striking collection of close-up photographs that delve into the dissonance between the life-sustaining rhythms of the Narta Lagoon’s ecosystem in Albania and the disruptive forces of proposed economic expansion, particularly the construction of a nearby airport. Embalmed birds from diverse habitats are photographed in a way that transforms them from educational specimens — corpses used to demonstrate migration patterns or samples serving as evidence of extinction — into abstract landscapes of feathers.
Exhibition Details:
The Salon by NADA & The Community
October 17–20, 2024
The Salon by NADA & The Community
October 17–20, 2024
VIP Opening Preview (by Invitation):
Thursday, October 17, 10am–6pm
Thursday, October 17, 10am–6pm
Open to the Public:
Thursday, October 17, 6–8pm
Friday, October 18, 11am–8pm
Saturday, October 19, 11am–8pm
Sunday, October 20, 11am–6pm
Thursday, October 17, 6–8pm
Friday, October 18, 11am–8pm
Saturday, October 19, 11am–8pm
Sunday, October 20, 11am–6pm
Artists bio
Kateryna Lysovenko (b. 1989, Odesa) is a Ukrainian artist. She studied at the Grekov Odesa Art School, then at the National Academy of Fine Arts and Architecture, Kyiv. In 2017–2016 she took a course in contemporary art at Kyiv Academy of Media Arts and in 2019 a course at Method Fund. She focuses on the research of power and ideology and the transition from the Soviet to the contemporary. In her artworks, the victim's image often emerges, no matter which topic she chooses – either the dominance of the art academy or right-wing violence, religious oppression, and harassment. Her works have been exhibited in numerous solo and group exhibitions, including Collateral Event of the 60th International Art Exhibition the Venice Biennial (Venice, IT); Handle with care, Ludwig Museum - Museum of Contemporary Art (2023, Budapest, Hungary); Motherland, Museum Ephraim-Palais (2023, Berlin, Germany), Kaleidoscope of (Hi)stories. Ukrainian Art 1912–2023, SKD, Albertinum (2023, Dresden, Germany), Goodbye, East! Goodbye, Narcissus!, Estonian Contemporary Art Museum – EKKM (2023, Tallinn, Estonia) among others. Kateryna Lysovenko's works have been highlighted and reviewed by The New York Times, Financial Times, ArtDaily, e-flux, Vogue Polska, The Village Voice, Monopol magazin and Blok Magazine. Lives and works in Vienna, Austria.
Maria Sulymenko was born in 1981 (Kyiv, Ukraine). Graduated Academy of Fine Arts in Stuttgart (Akademie der Bildenden Künste in Stuttgart), and Hessen State University of Art and Design in Offenbach am Main (Hochschule für Gestaltung).
Her recent exhibitions include Insomnia (Voloshyn Gallery, Miami, FL, US, 2024), Shifting, Glances (Simone Subal Gallery, NYC, US, 2022), Is it time, yet? (Georg Kargl Box, Vienna, Austria, 2022), She Asked, I Followed. Her Name Is After (Fredric Snitzer Gallery & Voloshyn Gallery, Miami, FL, US, 2022), The Memory on Her Face: Part I and Part II (Voloshyn Gallery, Miami, FL, US, 2022) And I trust You (Miettinen Collection, Berlin, 2022) and the solo exhibition The Glass World of People and Things... (Voloshyn Gallery, Kyiv, Ukraine, 2017). Lives and works in Fridingen an der Donau, Germany.
Vlada Ralko (b. 1969 in Kyiv, Ukraine) works with painting, graphics, installation, and creates art books. In 1994, she graduated from the painting department of the National Academy of Fine Arts and Architecture in Kyiv. Ralko is the recipient of the All-Ukrainian Triennial of Painting Award (2001) and a CCN Graz Scholarship (2007). She is also the winner of the He for She: Women In Arts award (2019). In her works, the artist often addresses questions of identity within relevant social and political contexts, delving into the existential depths of pain and suffering within a collective body. Her brushwork is emotional, robust, and contrastive, while her palette is saturated. Vlada Ralko has had solo and group exhibitions, including "Kaleidoscope of (Hi)stories. Ukrainian Art 1912-2023" at Albertinum, Dresden (DE); "Vlada Ralko & Volodymyr Budnikov: Questioning the Visible" at Galeria Arsenal, Bialystok (PL); "Women at War" at Fridman Gallery in collaboration with Voloshyn Gallery, New York (USA); "Ukraine: Short Stories: Contemporary artists from Ukraine" at MAXXI National Museum of 21st Century Arts, Rome (IT); "The phantom of liberty. Version" at Galeria Arsenal, Bialystok (PL), and others. Lives and works in Berlin, Germany and in Kyiv, Ukraine.
Abi Shehu (b.1993 Lezha, Albania) is a multi-disciplinary visual artist, whose artistic research can be described as an archeology of unconsciousness. Through a combination of visual and media art, from installation to sound art, she creates landscapes that embody the unrepresentable and unknowable dimensions of people, societies, places and historical events. Shehu’s work has been exhibited at Hauser and Wirth Menorca; Manifesta 14, Pristina; Zeta Gallery, Tirana; ‘In Waves,’ with Women in Covid, various locations; Bazament Art Space, Tirana; Galeria e Bregdetit, Vlora; EMOP, Berlin; Kino Rinia, Pristina; CLB, Berlin; and ArtHouse & Marubi Museum, Shkodra. Lives and works in Lezha, Albania.
About Voloshyn Gallery
In 2016, Max and Julia Voloshyn established Voloshyn Gallery in the heart of Kyiv, Ukraine. Situated in a historic 1913 building, Voloshyn Gallery's space provides an unconventional setting for contemporary art. It exhibits a broad range of works in a variety of media, representing both emerging and established artists. The Voloshyn Gallery hosts solo and group exhibitions, works with accomplished curators and museums, and takes part in leading contemporary art fairs. In 2022, Voloshyn Gallery made the difficult decision to close temporarily due to the full-scale invasion on Ukraine. In 2023 the gallery reopened it's doors in Kyiv, Ukraine and also expanded with a space in Miami, Florida.
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