Voloshyn Gallery is pleased to announce its participation in Independent 2025, taking place from May 8–11, 2025, in New York City. We warmly invite you to visit Booth 526, where we will be showcasing a selection of works by Abi Shehu and Yarema Malashchuk and Roman Khimei.
Exhibition Details:
Thursday, May 8: 11AM – 8PM (By Invitation)
Friday, May 9: 11AM – 7PM
Saturday, May 10: 11AM – 7PM
Sunday, May 11: 11AM – 6PM
Spring Studios
50 Varick Street
New York, NY 10013
Our booth presents a powerful exploration of human character and societal reflection through the lens of Abi Shehu’s photographic series, Affection, and the video work by Yarema Malashchuk and Roman Khimei, Dedicated to the Youth of the World III. This work is presently in a timely manner amidst the insidious and looming sense of global instability and the relationship between the self and broader collective.
Abi Shehu’s photographic work from the series Affection explores the nature of human character through a visual exploration of spaces. Portrayed through mirrors, as a way to clone oneself, the series focuses on personas, reflections, and contemplation. In an age of widespread global instability, the notion of inner exploration is timely and instructive.
Shehu’s work is a condensed esthetical research on the fundamental existential experiences that create a portrait of humanness in contemporary societies: unconsciousness, death rituals, memory, and amnesia. Her artistic research can be duly characterized as an archeology of unconsciousness. Through an intersection of visual and media art, installation, and sound art, Shehu recreates the transparent unconscious landscapes that are the constitutive unrepresentable dimensions of people, societies, places, and of historical events.
‘Dedicated to the Youth of the World III’ is a reenactment of the artists’ film with the same title produced in 2019, which documented the rave Сxema in Kyiv. While Kyiv’s youth appeared in that latter film to reclaim their post-revolutionary city in an intimate yet massive nighttime ritual – a kind of unrestricted freedom many looked forward to – the new version was created against a completely different backdrop. The artists decided to reenact the party in September 2023 in the face of constant threat, focusing on community members who have replaced the previous rave participants, after a
prolonged pandemic and the full-scale invasion by Russian occupation forces.
The previous work was shot in a special section of the Dovzhenko film studios in Kyiv, transformed for the occasion into a massive rave area. The carefully focused camera followed the participants into a new day – a reality many did not seem to accept. Dedicated to the Youth of the World III, by contrast, aims to capture the novel reality that has since emerged, a “new day” that nobody would have imagined in their wildest dreams four years ago.
About the Artists
Abi Shehu
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.
Yarema Malashchuk and Roman Khimei
Yarema Malashchuk and Roman Khimei have been working as filmmakers and visual artists since 2016, exploring the intersections of documentary and fiction to engage with Ukraine’s recent history and present. Their work examines the lingering structures of post-imperial power and their impact on a new generation of Ukrainians, caught between historical trauma and an uncertain future. Through multi-channel video installations and cinematic narratives, they capture the fractured nature of reality, where collective memory and personal experience intertwine. The duo’s practice reflects on the role of the extra, the unseen figures of history, and the ways in which individuals navigate shifting political and social landscapes.
They received the main award of the PinchukArtCentre Prize (2020) and the VISIO Young Talent Acquisition Prize (2021). Their recent short film Additional Scenes won the main awards at Tallinn Black Nights IFF 2024 and the Ukrainian Film Critics Award. The duo has participated in the Future Generation Art Prize 2021, Baltic Triennial 14, Gothenburg Biennial, and Kyiv Biennial, as well as group exhibitions at Haus der Kunst, Castello di Rivoli, and Albertinum. They have also presented solo exhibitions at Kunstverein Hannover and Galeria Arsenał, Białystok.
About Independent
Independent is an organization for the discovery and rediscovery of extraordinary art for discerning collectors and institutions.
Originally established in 2010 with an art exhibition at the former Dia Center for the Arts, they now produce two landmark shows (Independent and Independent 20th Century), publish editorial features and scholarship, and program a range of events that bring together leading artists, gallerists, curators, and thought leaders.
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. 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 of Ukraine. In 2023 the gallery reopened its doors in Kyiv, Ukraine and also expanded with a space in Miami, Florida.