Biography
Born in Kyiv in 1969. The focus of her artistic projects is the human being and the qualities that distinguish a person from the rest of the living world. The author looks at reality through the lens of her gender. Instead, she uses feminist energy to expose the nature of the human being. She removes the dead layers of the rubble of obvious truths to find the living underneath, which gives hope for the human ability to preserve its unique nature. The artist considers culture to be a state of politics and its manifestation at the same time. For her, art is a language that tends to be universally understood. Her artistic practices include painting, works on paper, spatial objects, assemblage and ceramics. Writing texts about the language of art and its relationship to philosophy and politics, essays and poetry is an important part of her work.
Simultaneously with graduating from the National Academy of Fine Arts and Architecture in 1994, she began her active exhibition activity. The artist's path lies outside of groups and artistic communities and is an independent movement according to her own plan. Studying under the guidance of Volodymyr Budnikov influenced her further commitment to painting as a research principle. During her stay in China with Volodymyr Budnikov, the artist started the series "Chinese Erotic Diary", which initiated a series of "diary" series that became one of the main lines in her work. Since the beginning of the Maidan in Kyiv and the Russian invasion of Ukraine in 2014, she has been working on projects and exhibitions in dialogue with Volodymyr Budnikov. She participates in many group projects that take place in the context of the political situation during the Russian aggression in Ukraine. Member of the National Union of Artists of Ukraine since 1994. In 2019, she received the He for She: Women In Arts Award. In 2021 awarded the Order for Intellectual Courage by the Independent magazine «Ї». Since 2022, the year of Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine, he has lived and worked mainly in Kyiv and Berlin. Her joint projects with Vladimir Budnikov have been shown in Berlin, Prague, Paris, Bialystok, and Poznan.
Summary
When talking by language of art in times of war, I find it of utmost importance to conscientiously allot each thing in its rightful place. The risk of halting or losing something in seemingly peaceful times did not seem all that fatal. But now, when human lives, devastation, and daily reports from the frontline have become time’s currency, it would be malfeasance to lose something important through negligence or a lapse in readiness to watch, see, and discern. I started to note it not so much out of a sense of responsibility as out of wonder at seeing the things that I previously wouldn’t find outside of the most hidden shelters come to the surface, and gain visibility. The things that used to be confined to metaphors seeped into reality.
I always wondered what happened to humans, to human bodies under different circumstances. The present ordeals made bodies speak, that is, reality seems to speak through bodily changes. The trope of fragmentation that I used when depicting bodies had entered reality during wartime, with the appearance of soldiers and civilians who lost their limbs in hostilities. Reality is howling at us through things that can be seen rather than just guessed at. But, to counter the incursion of reality so bright that it might outshine everything beyond it or everything it could portend, we should remember the interplay of truth content and subject matter in a work, described by Walther Benjamin thus: “the work’s truth content is the more relevant the more inconspicuously and intimately it is bound up with its subject matter.”
From the very first days of art school, we’ve been taught not to look at things we depict directly. This professional trick that helps to maintain the integrity of vision is equally relevant when examining the interplay between what I want to say and how I intend to do it. Ultimately, what matters is that you don’t prematurely grow complacent in your knowledge about the thing that you intend to name in a work. You cannot pin down the essence of a thing while staring at it head-on: it slinks back, fleeing the gaze.
Selected solo exhibitions
2024
- Political Anatomy. Version, Einundneunzig Galerie, Frankfurt
2023
- Political Anatomy (with Volodymyr Budnikov), Arsenal Municipal Gallery, Poznan;
- Bessere Welt, Galerie Udo WÜRTENBERGER, Berlin
2022
- Lviv Diary, Lviv National Art Gallery (Pidhirtsi Castle), Pidhirtsi;
- 21 děl pro-Ukrajinu, Trypolska Gallery, Topičově salon, Prague;
- Pour l`Ukraine, Trypolska gallery, Paris;
- Not a Dream, ArtEast Gallery, Berlin;
- A Questioning of the Visible, Galeria Arsenal, Białystok;
- Time of War, SMAC space, Berlin;
- Lviv Diary (Shelter Project), Lviv Municipal Art Center, Lviv;
- Lviv Diary - drawings from the war, 2022, Kahán Art Space 1072, Budapest
2021
- Victory - Triumf - Rest, Lviv National Art Gallery (Pidhirtsi Castle), Pidhirtsi
2020
- Between Themselves and the Same, Lviv National Art Gallery (Potocky Palace, Lozynsky Palace, I. H. Pinzel Museum), Lviv;
- Zone of Silence, Sherbenko Art Center, Kyiv
2019
- Ghost of Freedom. Version, Galeria Arsenał, Bialystok;
- Personal Effects, Galeria Labirynt, Lublin;
- Wedding, Voloshyn gallery, Kyiv;
- Kyiv Diary, I. H. Pinzel Museum, Lviv
2018
- Liberty and its Phantom (with Volodymyr Budnikov), Chervonechorne Gallery, Kaniv;
- Reserv, National museum Kyiv art gallery, Kyiv;
- Anatomy, OFAM, Odesa;
- Fashion Show, Voloshyn Gallery, Kyiv
2017
- Three Steps (with Volodymyr Budnikov), Central House of Artists, Kyiv;
- Imminent amongst Forgotten, Voloshyn Gallery, Kyiv
2016
- Contact line (with Volodymyr Budnikov), ChervoneChorne Gallery, Kaniv
2014
- Poet’s Refuge (with Volodymyr Budnikov), ChervoneChorne Gallery, Kaniv;
- White Pages, Karas Gallery, Kyiv
2013
- Surface, Karas Gallery, Kyiv;
- Inside, Karas Gallery, Kyiv
2011
- Heat (with Volodymyr Budnikov), GuGa Gallery, Gurzuf;
- Boys and Girls (with Volodymyr Budnikov), Ya Gallery Art Centre, Kyiv
2009
- Military Sanatorium, Karas Gallery, Kyiv;
- Simple Things, Art Kyiv, Karas Gallery, Ukrainian House, Kyiv;
- Envy to Reality, Karas Gallery, Kyiv;
- Signs, Bereznitsky Gallery, Berlin
2007
- Twins, Art moscow, Karas Gallery, Central House of Artists, Moscow;
- Must Have, Ya Gallery Art Centre, Kyiv; Scholarship of CCN GRAZ, Graz
2006
- Sliding, Ya Gallery Art Centre, Kyiv;
- Twins, Atelier Karas Gallery, Kyiv
2005
- Pink Fortified, Atelier Karas Gallery, Kyiv
2004
- Simple Man, Atelier Karas Gallery, Kyiv;
- Chinese Erotic Diary, Guelman Gallery, Moscow
2002
- Chinese Erotic Diary, Guelman Gallery, Kyiv;
- Behind the Screen, Atelier Karas Gallery, Kyiv
2001
- Works on Paper, Alipy Gallery, Kyiv;
- Painting, Etching, In den Gerbgruben Gallery, Burgenland;
- Prize of Ukrainian Triennale of Painting, Kyiv
2000
- Paradise, Ra Gallery, Kyiv
1997
- Better Times, Tadzio Gallery, Kyiv;
- Better Times, Museum of Kyiv History, Kyiv
Selected group exhibitions
2024
- Our Years, Our Words, Our Losses, Our Searches, Our Us, Jam Factory Art Center, Lviv
2023
- A Brief History of Tension, Resistance and Love, ArtStationDubulty, Jurmala;
- Brave to Witness: Ukrainian War Diaries, Ukraine House in Denmark;
- (Nicht) Unser Krieg, Video art in solidarity with Ukraine, Weltkunstzimmer, Düsseldorf;
- Dutchmediaweek, Hilversum, the Netherlands;
- Conversation 2, Leszno Municipal Art Exhibition Office, Leszno;
- Kaleidoscope of (Hi)stories. Ukrainian Art 1912–2023, Albertinum, Dresden;
- Kaleidoscope of (Hi)stories. Ukrainian Art 1912–2023, Museum de Fundatie, Zwolle, Netherlands;
- Valuables, Riegelbau des Bildungszentrum Bestehornpark, Ashersleben;
- Records of Resistance, Martinrow Gallery, Brussel
2022
- Coalition, DOMIE, Poznań;
- Women at War, Fridman Gallery, New York City, NY;
- War Diaries, Galeria Foto-Gen Ośrodek Kultury I Sztuki, Wrocław;
- Piazza Ukraina, Venice Biennale, Venice;
- The Captured House, Alte Münze, Berlin
2021
- The Garden After the Gods, JUMP Contemporary Art Center, Poltava;
- Hava Nagila, Melitopol Museum of Local Lore, Melitopol;
- Time Not Lost, Zaporizhzhia.City Hub, Zaporizhzhia;
- Ukraine. Different Views of Each Other, International Center of Culture, Kraków
2020
- Fear, Galeria Arsenał, Bialystok
2018
- Revolutionize!, Art Arsenal, Kyiv;
- A Space of One’s Own, Pinchuk Art Center, Kyiv;
- Permanent revolution, Ludvig museum, Budapest
2017
- Holiday Canceled! – Exhibition of the Kyiv International – Kyiv Biennale 2017, Kyiv
2016
- Our national body, National Taras Shevchenko Museum, Kyiv;
- Art school, National museum of russian art, Kyiv
2015
- The school of Kyiv – Kyiv Biennial 2015, Kyiv;
- On the board, Pinchuk Art Center, Kyiv;
- Our national body, Galeria Arsenał, Białystok;
- Shelter, Chervonechorne Gallery, Art Kyiv, Art Arsenal;
- Fantasies. Reality, National Art Museum of Ukraine, Kyiv;
- Lest the two seas meet, Museum of Modern Art, Warsaw;
- IV Odesa Biennale of Contemporary Art, main project «Manifesto», Odesa Museum of Modern Art
2014
- T.H., National Taras Shevchenko Museum, Kyiv;
- Referendum on withdrawal from the human race, Teatr Powszechny, Warsaw;
- Premonition: Ukrainian art now, Saatchi Gallery, London;
- The Ukrainians, DAAD gallery, Berlin;
- The drop in the ocean, Kunstlerhouse, Vienna;
- The show within the show, Art Arsenal, Kyiv
2012
- Heat (with Volodymyr Budnikov), Grand Sculpture Salon, Art Arsenal, Kyiv;
- Captivated gaze, Arsenale 2012, Karas Gallery, Kyiv
2010
- Art-Kyiv, Art Arsenal, Kyiv
2007
- School Wool, Moscow Biennale, Central House of Artists, Moscow;
- Twins, Art moscow, Karas Gallery, Central House of Artists, Moscow
2004
- Farewell to Arms, Art Arsenal, Kyiv
2003
- First Collection, Central House of Artists, Kyiv;
- Donumenta, Regensburg;
- Age of Romanticism, Palace of Fine Arts, Lviv
2002
- Girls, Nymphettes, Girls, Nymphettes, Rebell Minds Gallery, Berlin
2000
- New Trends, Central House of Artists, Kyiv;
- Chimelice castle residence, CCA, Prague
1995
- Treasures of Forgotten Country, Lincoln Center, NY
Public collections
Albertinum, Dresden; Lviv National Art Gallery, Lviv; National Art Museum of Ukraine, Kyiv; Fridman Gallery, New York City, NY; Galeria Arsenal, Białystok; Museum of Kyiv History, Kyiv; Odesa National Fine Arts Museum, Odesa; Zaporizhzhia Regional Art Museum, Zaporizhzhia; Mystetskyi Arsenal National Art and Culture Museum Complex, Kyiv; Maidan Museum, Kyiv