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New Perspectives: 8 Contemporary Artist from Ukraine
01 December 2015 —
14 January 2016

selected works

about

Within the project eight of the leading Ukrainian artists will show new original, brave boundaries of the Ukrainian art. The initiators and curators of the project Max and Julia Voloshyn, and Walter Goydysh set the goal to acquaint the international community with the most progressive Ukrainian authors. They are convinced that the original and fresh ideas of the project will inspire visitors of the exhibition to rethink personal experience and give impetus to the spiritual search.  The project will involve Mikhailo Deyak, Anna Valieva, Artem Volokitin, Tatiana Malinovskaya, Mykola Matsenko, Stepan Ryabchenko, Oleg Tistol and Roman Minin.

In the project New Perspectives: 8 Contemporary Artist from Ukraine the modern Ukrainian art is represented as a unique phenomenon. The curators of the exhibition focus on the new prospects of local artists on the international market. Most of the project participants are presented in New York for the first time. The organizers believe that there is a new promoting generation of artists is formed in Ukraine, who have high qualifications in the traditional theory of art and at the same time acutely aware of the urgent global problems. The project presents the authors, working in their own unique and recognizable art. They raise questions of creation and destruction, ethnic identity, find their own individual way at the intersection of the past and present, eastern and western traditions.

Symbolically the most relevant and conceptual art will be presented in the old classical mansion of Fletcher-Sinclair Mansion. The organizers assure, that this contrast even more emphasizes the innovative and experimental ideas, and shows how over time we open more and more new horizons in art and culture. 

New Perspectives: 8 Contemporary Artists From Ukraine from Ukrainian Institute of America on Vimeo.

"I am sure this exhibition will help the Western audience to get acquainted better with the Ukrainian art and to discover new values, and spiritual and aesthetic facets of our culture", – says Max Voloshyn.

In the project New Perspectives: 8 Contemporary Artist from Ukraine the modern Ukrainian artists invite the viewers to explore their own perspectives, to take the risk to look into the future, beyond the horizon of events. The project touches the deep emotional and spiritual dimension of the modern man, which like hundred years ago faces the same problems of choice, and at the same time, the new prospects are explored.

New Perspectives: 8 Contemporary Artist from Ukraine is the search of bold new perspectives of development of the Ukrainian art on the basis of national values. Thus the neo-folk master, one of the most famous and original artists of Ukraine Mykola Matsenko expresses his ideas through symbolic "coats of arms". For many years Nikolai has been forming a new national myth. His works at once reminiscent the pop art and the old folk ornament. In addition to other works in the neo-folk style he will present at the exhibition 25 Colorado beetles - a symbolic allusion to the political conflict in Ukraine. Works by Anna Valieva allow a new experience of perception of texture and see how images acquire new sense in the context of non-standard material, e.g., syntepon. manifestation of the divine, experiments with materials, creating works on the padding polyester and metal mesh. Anna is a young and already very successful Ukrainian artist, the winner of contest "New names» and the winner of exhibition "Rome-Kiev". Participant of a number of high-profile art projects, including "According to Forbes' and art project" Motherland" by Focus the magazine in 2014. The new generation of the Ukrainian authors is also represented by Mikhailo Deyak, working on edge of neo-expressionism and minimalism. In the project Mikhail presents a series of paintings "Klitschko Brothers Emotions", which was presented in 2014 at the exhibition "Art Kiev Contemporary". Through these works, Mikhail appeals to the story of the champion, to his inner experience, the inner energy that fills the fighter before the fight. Characters figures of the paintings are absolutely devoid of individual traits, because the author is not willing to show the appearance, but the mood, the soul of the champion. Another cycle, represented by Mikhail is a series of Stools. In this series, portraying the chairs and their "quiet life" Deyak essentially personifies them. He grants the usual chairs with character, a story that every "chair-man" tells the viewer. His chairs Mikhail embodies both on the traditional canvas, and by a unique technique for glass. As in the series "Klitschko Brothers Emotions", "Stools" are painted expressively, using the local color, which further enhances the emotional perception of the work of Mikhailo Deyak. Mikhail's creativity is characterizedwith a typical search for hidden meanings, a study of the true nature of things, the embodiment of his discoveries in bright saturated colors and dynamic images of plastic. Stepan Ryabchenko captures the spirit of the time: the era of information technology, virtual reality, and digital images. Stepan Ryabchenko came to contemporary art through architecture, in which he achieved considerable success. In his boldest and brightest project the artist "plays" with the space, transforming and designing a new abstract environment. The project presents a series of works of "Viruses" and "Electronic Marshmallows", in which the artist refers to the actual topic of this century, namely, virtual reality and its impact on people's lives. Stepan Ryabchenko embodies computer viruses into visual images. Giving the virus the form, he turns it from an invisible threat to the visible work of art that is able to influence a person, to worry him, to give the emotions. Also in the series of "Electronic Marshmallows" the artist transforms the Greek mythology into the virtual mythology, creating portraits of virtual winds. Another young artist, whose works will be presented at the exhibition, is Artem Volokitin, PinchucArtPrize winner. His new cycle is devoted to destruction and creation. "Salute" speaks to the audience about the eternal themes. In a series of "Salute", the artist with the help of his paintings is watching the destruction of beauty and its irreversibility of extinction. It creates a frightening picture of physical phenomena, facing of which, the person is aware of his mortality. On the one hand, it is fascinating physics of the process, he reveals as a painter. On the other - the image of explosions - is a kind of living the everyday reality that overwhelms aggression. The maximum simplified, graphical background of his work resembles the technique of engraving.

Tatiana Malinovska, a bright representative of Ukrainian women's art scene,   aims to give the audience the ease and carelessness of life, its beauty and diversity. In the series of works Easy game in the form of a cake the very airy, weightless infantile desire from childhood is embodied. At the same time, the composition is balanced and weighted with a kind of "dogma" in the form of a red carved frames. In another work of this series the image of the Tower of Babel appears. It symbolizes the desire of people who have come together on the way to the top. In the work Triumph the air pierces the entire image, which consists of various mixed substances. In the works from the series "The Core" the whirlpool is embodied, in the depth of which sensuality, intrigue and a magical kaleidoscope are connected, like a fairy-tale dream.

Oleg Tistol one of the most famous Ukrainian artists, the bright Ukrainian follower of the new wave, will present the viewer works from the series "U. B. K ", on which he has been working for more than 9 years. In this series, he turns to the subject of stereotypes and cultural symbols. So the portrayed palm of the seafront of Yalta, embodies the image of a lost paradise, a place of rest, which was the Crimea for all the Ukrainians. Nevertheless, the palm is also the image of hand-made, substitution and artificiality. Tistol in the series of "U. B. K" indicates substitution of the truths, which are replaced by stereotyped, popular characters.  

Not less striking representative of the Ukrainian art space is Roman Minin, who is known primarily as the author of works on the theme of miners. The artist has managed to create not just a very large-scale series, but also a kind of anthology of the miners' life. The image of a miner is not a simple symbol for Minin, the meaning of which has a different range of metaphorical readings: from the Christian symbol of the feat of humility - to search for information in the information world, and claims the role, as expressed by the author himself, of "anthropomorphic archetype." At the same time the artist are of sharp social character, being a perfect illustration of human exploitation in the capitalist market system. In the work presented at the exhibition "Silence Award" in the center the image of the eye is placed as a symbol of the falsity of a categorical point of view on international conflicts and clashes.

The project will take place in a historic mansion in the heart of New York City - on the corner of 5th Avenue in the building of The Ukrainian Institute of America. The Ukrainian Institute of America is Ukrainian cultural institution in the United States, founded in 1948 by Ukrainian inventor, businessman and philanthropist Vladimir Dzhus. Since 1955 Institute is located in the purchased in New York palace of Augustus and Anna Van Horn Stayvezent. Fletcher-Sinclair Mansion was built in 1897 by the famous architect Charles Pierpont Henry Gilbert and belongs to national cultural monuments of the United States.

The institute is a center and platform for the presentation of Ukrainian culture (art, literature, music). The Institute is developing connections with American cultural circles of the world, arranges art exhibitions, scientific congresses, concerts, literary evenings, lectures, friendlies.