Lesia Khomenko: Image And Presence

The Ukrainian Museum is honored to present the first solo museum exhibition in North America by Lesia Khomenko, an acclaimed artist from Kyiv who recently has been the focus of much global media discussion and attention. Featuring works from four series, the exhibition reflects on Khomenko’s creative method and her incessant investigations of identity and politics, particularly in the context of the Russian war in Ukraine.

The installation at the Ukrainian Museum includes early works from the Count Down series (2011-2017), in which Khomenko reimagines prominent and widely reproduced socialist realist battle paintings by Soviet Ukrainian artists who witnessed World War II. Her highly abstracted copies of Landing on the Black Sea (Chornomortsi), 1947 by Victor Puzyrkov and The Response of the Mortar Guardsmen (Vidpovid Hvardiitsiv-minometnykiv), 1949 by Fedir Usypenko stand as a keen investigation of these original paintings, which exemplify the propaganda and fake narratives of the Soviet visual tradition. In her canvases, Khomenko eliminates the valorous figures of soldiers and military equipment, foregrounding instead the depopulated terrain.

The exhibition is curated by The Ukrainian Museum curator Lilia Kudelia.

Supported by: Ukranian National Women`s League of America and Voloshyn Gallery, Kyiv, Ukranian Global Art.

Installation view of Lesia Khomenko Image and Presence at the Ukrainian Museum, New York, April 2023. Photo: Luis Corzo

28.04.2023 - 06.08.2023