May 23–26, 2019, Toronto Kyiv Complex, Velyka Vasylkivska str., 100, Kyiv, booth No. 7 (0 floor)

Voloshyn Gallery is taking part in the contemporary art event Kyiv Art Fair for the second time, where it presents the personal project of the Ukrainian author Vlada Ralko. 

Kyiv Art Fair is the contemporary art event, which takes place in May within the international festival Kyiv Art Week already for the 4th year in a row. In 2019, at Kyiv Art Fair, the projects will be presented by 38 galleries and art institutions from Ukraine, Georgia, Germany, Denmark, Austria, France, and USA. 

«This Is Not a Competition» – that was the topic offered for the event organizers this year.

In the solo-presentation of Vlada Ralko, Voloshyn Gallery presents a series of new works on paper “Personal Actions”, which the artist creates during her residence of BIRUCHIY (2018). “Personal Actions” is a series of watercolours, that depict a range of anthropomorphic objects, which the artist deliberately leaves “ambiguous”: as if these objects are evading naming. All the objects are placed against the exteriors of an old Soviet recreational facility, in an environment rarely identical to a prison, a school, or, after all, any other Soviet public space.

The artist herself comments upon the series “Personal Actions” like this: “…I would like to avoid a definitive interpretation of certain figures in these works: some objects may seem somewhat similar to body parts, to bodies that have taken a certain form (and, on the level of external manifestations, bodily equals human), or, their free form juxtaposed to their rigidly defined surroundings, as metaphors of humans. Accordingly, I find it crucial to meticulously distinguish the similar from the identical: the former presupposes difference, whereas the latters serves a normalizing function”.

Vlada Ralko was born in 1969 in Kyiv. She graduated from the T.H. Shevchenko Republican Art School in 1987, and from the National Academy of Fine Arts and Architecture (the workshop of Professor V. Shatalin) in 1994. She was awarded the Ukrainian Triennale of Painting prize in 2001, and a scholarship of CCN Graz in 2007. A member of the National Union of Artists of Ukraine since 1994, she is widely exhibited in Ukraine and abroad. Ralko’s works have been exhibited at Lincoln Center (New York, USA), the Rebell Minds Gallery (Berlin, Germany), at Künstlerhaus (Vienna, Austria), Saatchi Gallery (London), and more. Voloshyn Gallery presented Ralko’s works at Scope Miami Beach (2017) and at Dallas Art Fair (2019). She lives and works in Kyiv, Ukraine.

Founded in October 2016 by Max and Julia Voloshyn, Voloshyn Gallery specializes in contemporary art. It 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.

Its cutting-edge exhibition space is 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. The collector and philanthropist Bohdan Khanenko bought the building for his wife Varvara, renovating it as a revenue house. Its second floor was envisioned as an exhibition and storage space for Khanenko’s expanding museum of fine arts.

Maksym and Julia Voloshyn have been active in the art business since 2006. Their first gallery, Mystetska Zbirka Art Gallery, specialized in classical and post-war 20th century Ukrainian art. In 2015, the Voloshyns made it to the Forbes’ 30 Under 30 list.

Toronto Kyiv Complex,

Kyiv, Velyka Vasylkivska str., 100,

Booth No. 7 (0 floor)

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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