“SHERO,” a new show is an art manifesto
to the invincible power of women’s nature.
The manifesto is proclaimed in a diversity
of voices, with each artist coming from a different background and having a unique tone and style.
Press:
Photos by
Yana Lande
Photos by
Olen Kakotyk
Photos by
Olga Barkar
Photos by
Vlad Bogatsky
Please, give
photographers
credits
Polina Kuznetsova (b. 1985, Kharkiv) is a contemporary Ukrainian painter, performer, and independent curator, based in Kharkiv. She holds a degree from the Kharkiv State Academy of Design and Arts. Her work, immersing viewers into a dream realm that transcends time and reality, is often described as magical realism. Kuznetsova has exhibited at numerous exhibitions, art fairs, and auctions across the globe, including The First Ukrainian Auction in Cromwell Place (London), Affordable Art Fair in Stockholm, Art Vilnius, and the Context Miami art fair. In 2023, her solo exhibitions took place in Tallinn, London, and Kyiv.
Beans diptych (2024)
Since her “Easter” project in 2018, Kuznetsova has been using the image of bean as a symbol of life, creation, and rebirth. However, one never knows for sure whether the bean, or an egg, will bring life. For Kuznetsova, it is about a hopeful doubt: will the new life emerge from this seed, after all?
During the cold winter of 2024, amidst the continuing full-scale Russian invasion of Ukraine, the symbol of bean emerged in her art again, and became of even more importance to her. With Beans paintings, Polina states: “No matter how long may the war last, everything will end with spring and fresh sprouts.” In the portrait of woman with a bean in her mouth, she also highlights the creative and life-giving power of women: not only in the literal sense, but also in the sense of art and craft.
Alexander Anokhin (b. 1988, Kharkiv) is a contemporary Ukrainian painter now based in Lviv. He graduated from the Kharkiv State Academy of Design and Arts in 2014. Despite having a degree in arts, Anokhin initially hesitated to fully invest himself in the craft. For a couple years after graduating, he continued drawing only as a hobby. However, the pandemic of 2020 and the full-scale Russian invasion in 2022 became final catalysts for Anokhin’s plunge into the full-time artistic career.
One of the main themes Anokhin is focused on in his art is the mental state of people experiencing war—a social problem that he is deeply concerned about. In his paintings, he depicts scenes from everyday life, but with underlying currents of emotions that his characters, scarred by the war, experience. At first glance, these scenes may appear ordinary, but when looked at closer, evoke a sense that something is off; something within them unsettles us, though we may struggle to pinpoint exactly what it is.
Alina Anokhina (b. 1988, Kharkiv) is a contemporary Ukrainian artist currently based in Lviv. She graduated from the Kharkiv State Academy of Design and Fine Arts in 2013. Anokhina’s artistic interest lies in themes related to womanhood. Through her art, she explores various experiences and emotions that women go through, as well as different manifestations of women’s beauty in Ukrainian culture and ancient myths. Her most recent paintings explore the beauty and resilience of women in the context of war. “The war reveals the incredible power of women that can’t be seen in different circumstances,” states Anokhina.
Artur Anokhin (b. 1990, Kharkiv) is a contemporary Ukrainian artist based in Kharkiv. In 2015, he graduated from the Kharkiv State Academy of Design and Fine Arts, with a specialty in monumental painting. Anokhin creates highly realistic paintings, capturing the beauty of mundanity and a fleeting magic of the present moment. Drawing inspiration from old masters, he works in multi-layered oil technique, paying great attention to small details and the delicate interplay of light. “The image of a woman is the primary theme of my art. For me, femininity embodies love and beauty, sensuality and tenderness, serenity and groundedness.
Yevhenii Shapovalov (b. 1986, Crimea) is a Ukrainian painter and graphic designer currently based in Chernihiv. Raised in a family of artists and classically trained in painting, Shapovalov’s techniques range broadly from photo realism to abstract slashing pastel marks. He works in various genres from landscape and still life to abstraction and nude, seamlessly combining his wide array of techniques in a fascinating melange somewhat reminiscent of David Salle.
Yevhenii is an active participant in international projects, exhibitions, and plein-airs. His recent accomplishments include participating in several prestigious group exhibitions:
Diana Ruban (b. 1999) is an emerging Ukrainian artist from Kremenchuk. She works with painting, sculpture, and installation, exploring the themes of emotions, psychological trauma, and the concept of gender.
Ruban believes that our childhood is the most crucial experience in shaping our worldview, compassion, and humanity, and she often delves into her own childhood memories in her works.
Diana Ruban has exhibited in numerous countries worldwide, including Turkey, New York, Chicago, Austin, Houston, UK, Israel, Switzerland, and Italy. Her works belong to private collections in Ukraine, Germany, France, the United States, and Sweden.
Natalia Lugovska (b. 1969, Zaporizhia) is a Ukrainian contemporary artist working in the genre of photorealism. She received her art education at Repin Art School in Kharkiv, under the guidance of the Honored Artist of Ukraine, Alexander Lysenko (2010-2012). Lugovska works with oil painting, depicting the pristine nature and the fleeting beauty of the world. She creates sketches based on her own photographs or other images, modifying them in Photoshop. Her goal as an artist is to not merely reproduce an exact image but to create a new reality, emphasizing the uniqueness and perfection of the pictured moment.
Kateryna Reznichenko (b. 1997, Lviv) is a contemporary Ukrainian painter currently based in Seattle. She holds a degree from Ivan Trush Lviv College and a Master’s degree in monumental art from Lviv National Academy of Arts. Reznichenko primarily works with oil painting, focusing on exploring the human expression and identity in both physical and emotional form.
Her characters possess an ethereal quality, their forms blending and overlapping to convey the complexity and interconnectedness of human experiences. Through the use of diffused edges and a restricted color palette, Reznichenko creates a sense of unity and ambiguity in her works. The figures in her “Humans” series appear to be caught in moments of introspection and transformation, offering dynamic explorations of the human form and spirit.
Nina Murashkina (b. 1985, Donetsk) is a multi-disciplinary Ukrainian artist currently based in Spain. She works with painting, graphics, ceramics, and performance, creating highly erotic and metaphorical art, weaved from her personal sexual and emotional experiences. Murashkina’s vivid aesthetic is influenced by Ukrainian naive art, Indian and Japanese imagery, as well as ancient mythology.
“I‘m erotic and see the world in an erotic context,” Murashkina states. She describes her own artwork as “the delicious details from the Subconscious and the extreme limits allowed in social relations.” Her goddess-like heroines embody the dual nature of the woman: lustful and innocent, provocative and tender, brutally honest and darkly mysterious.
Murashkina exhibited widely across the globe, including the Hamptons Fine Art Fair (NY), SCOPE Miami, Fresh Art Fair (UK), Aberdeen Art Fair (UK), NordArt contemporary art exhibition (DE), and Affordable Art Fairs in Hampstead (UK), New York, and London. Her most recent solo exhibitions took place in Lysenko Gallery (Paris), Test Gallery (Barcelona), Coya Gallery (Abu-Dhabi, UAE), and Dukley Art Gallery (Montenegro). Her works belong to private collections in Ukraine, China, United States, Japan, Canada, and numerous countries in Europe. Her “Still Waters Run Deep” ceramic series won the Best Design of the Year award at the FAD Art Awards 2023 and was exhibited in Disseny Hub in Barcelona.
Julia Isabel (b. Kyiv) is a multidisciplinary contemporary artist, graphic designer, social and environmental activist based in New York. She earned degrees in Studio Art and Graphic Design at Sacred Heart University, CT.
Isabel works with enamel, oil, watercolor, and charcoal, often creating large, mural-sized paintings. Her natural artistic talent, passion for creativity, openness to the diverse mediums and techniques, along with a constant search for answers on hard questions, make her artistic expression distinctive and unique. Through her art pieces and design projects, she explores representation and brings urgency to the complex issues our society faces at every stage of its development. She has exhibited at Yale University, CT, at the Society of Illustrators of Los Angeles, CA, at Sacred Heart University, CT, and other venues in the United States and internationally. In 2020, she had her solo exhibition Into the Horizon: Monumental Art for the Environment at Sacred Heart University. She has won numerous awards for her art and design projects worldwide.
enamel on raw canvas, 81 x 96 in, $35,000
Yurko Koch (b. 1958, Lviv) is a Ukrainian graphic artist, painter, and book designer based in Lviv, Ukraine. In 1978, he graduated from Ivan Trush Lviv State College of Decorative and Applied Arts, and in 1986, from the Ukrainian Academy of Printing in Lviv. He designed and illustrated more than 100 books by famous Ukrainian and international authors. Additionally, he is the author of numerous essays and articles on art-related themes.
Koch defines his art style as “metaphysical mannerism.” In his paintings, characterized by irony and eroticism, he incorporates fantasy elements into a realistic image, creating a special world of his own. A lot of his works include the urban landscape of Lviv.
Maya Hayuk is a Brooklyn-based Ukrainian-American artist with an extensive background in generative art and social practices. Hayuk’s vibrant, painterly abstractions variously reference Ukrainian Easter eggs, Mexican woven blankets, mandalas, holograms, and Rorschach blots. She uses acrylic, ink, glitter, spray paint, watercolors, tape, and ballpoint pens to shape the kaleidoscopic geometries that fill her public murals, canvases, and works on paper.
Hayuk has exhibited and created site-specific commissions in New York, Los Angeles, Rio de Janeiro, São Paulo, and San Francisco. Her work belongs in the collections of the Ukrainian Museum, the Millennium Iconoclast Museum of Art, MOCA Jacksonville, and the Dean Collection.
Iryna Kalyuzhna is a Ukrainian artist from Kharkiv. She graduated from the Repin Art School and the Kharkiv Academy of Art and Design. In her works, Kalyuzhna demonstrates mastery in employing various techniques, including the a la prima technique, the use of glaze, decoupage, and a profound understanding of plasticity in drawing. While deeply influenced by the Kharkiv school of easel painting, she is continually pushing boundaries and exploring new avenues of artistic expression.
An avid collector of vintage traditional Ukrainian costumes, Kalyuzhna incorporates them into her Beauty series, portraying beautiful Ukrainian women and children wearing vintage clothes from her collection of over 200 pieces.
Valeriia Buchuk is a multidisciplinary contemporary artist. She holds a Master of Arts degree from the Donetsk Art College and the Kharkiv Academy of Design and Fine Arts. She has a background of working with painting, graphics, sculpture, and set design. Her current artistic practice lies mostly in the realm of photography.
Buchuk’s art is profoundly personal and intimate. Her works explore the most beautiful aspects of existence—the magic of the present moment; a state of being in love. Her main characters are mostly women, and she often focuses on the human body, highlighting its essence as the vessel for human emotion and expression.
watercolors on paper, 57 x 41 3/10 in, $1,200 per piece, $15.000 for the whole panel (25 pcs)
Maria Kulikovska (b. 1988, Kerch) is a Ukrainian multidisciplinary artist, architect, actionist-performer, researcher, and lecturer. She holds two master’s degrees: from the National Academy of Fine Art and Architecture in Kyiv (Architecture of Buildings and Structures) and from Konstfack University in Stockholm (Fine Arts). After the annexation of Crimea by the Russian Federation in 2014, Kulikovska
left her hometown and moved to Kyiv, where she was based until 2022. One month after the beginning of the full-scale Russian invasion, Maria together with their newborn baby was forced to flee from Kyiv to Uzhorod, and later—to Linz, Austria. She is currently based at the Helsinki International Artist Program (HIAP), granted by the Ukraine Solidarity Residencies Program in Helsinki, Finland.
Kulikovska has exhibited worldwide, including the Museums of Jossingfjord Viten (Norway), Zurich Gallery Weekend (Switzerland), Helsinki International Art Program (Finland), Albertina Modern (Vienna, Austria), Double Q Gallery in Hong Kong (China), Weserburg Museum (Bremen, Germany), Goethe Institute in Baku (Azerbaijan), Accelerator Museum (Stockholm, Sweden), Artivist Lab (Prague, Czech Republic), National Gallery in London (UK), British Parliament (London, UK), Saatchi Gallery (London, UK).
Anastasiia Podervianska is a Ukrainian contemporary multidisciplinary artist from Kyiv, born in 1978 into a family of artists. She graduated from Shevchenko State Art School in 1996 and from the National Academy of Fine Arts and Architecture in 2002. Her oeuvre straddles paintings on canvas, wooden boards, and glass. Over the last few years, she has mostly been working with embroidery and textile. Through her embroidered collages, Podervianska rethinks the ancient craft of decorative embroidery, turning it into a contemporary art medium. She blends Ukrainian folk traditions with visual aesthetics reminiscent of comic book graphics, fearlessly experimenting with contemporary ideas and scenes on the traditional ethno-romantic canvas.
Podervianska’s works were showcased in numerous international exhibitions and art fairs, including Scope Miami Beach 2017, 2022 (USA) and VOLTA 14 (Switzerland). Her art belongs to collections worldwide: Eurolab; Museum of Modern Art of Ukraine; private collections in Ukraine, Poland, Germany, Macedonia, the UK, and the USA.
Tetiana Malinovska. Classification 1, 2015, oil on canvas, 33 5/10 x 28 in, $4,000
Tetiana Malinovska is a contemporary artist, independent curator, co-founder of VM Art Studio, and a mother of five children. As an artist, she works with oil painting, ink, embroidery, media, and video art, exploring themes of self-identification, self-consciousness, and the transience of one’s existence in a society.
In 2019, Malinovska represented the Ukrainian Pavilion at the Venice Biennale. Her exhibition history includes more than 50+ exhibitions across Ukraine, Poland, Vienna, the USA, France, Italy, the UK, and Germany. During the “Lucuna” exhibition in Kunsthaus Potsdam, Malinovska’s painting received the highest praise from Germany’s Chancellor, Olaf Scholz.
Tata (Tetiana) Kolesnik (b. 1982, Kharkiv) is a Ukrainian contemporary painter currently based in Germany. Kolesnik was classically trained in painting under the guidance of the renowned Ukrainian artist, Eugen Bykov. Her exquisite aesthetic is greatly influenced by old European masters, with the delicate incorporation of Ukrainian traditional visual motifs.
Kolesnik’s exhibition history includes numerous solo and group shows across the world. Her art was showcased in the First Auction of Ukrainian Art at Cromwell Place (London). She has also participated in numerous group exhibitions across the US, including New York, Los Angeles, Atlanta, Seattle, and Denver.
Nadine Kobylko (b. 1958, Paris) is a Ukrainian-French interior architect and designer trained at Académie Charpentier. Active since 1983, she has gained extensive experience in a wide range of fields, including furniture, object design, decoration, interior layout, architecture, and painting on wood. Raised by Ukrainian parents who always spoke of their homeland with deep love and admiration, Kobylko developed extreme passion for Ukrainian ethnic craft, which led her to collecting Ukrainian embroidery and folk art objects.
Since the beginning of the full-scale Russian invasion, Kobylko started crafting embroidered cushion-objects as a tribute to Ukraine, a country where her heart belongs and where her ancestral heritage lies. “These cushions are all unique. Their up-cycled creation comforts me and connects me to Ukraine. It’s my personal way of warding off the events,” states Kobylko.
Julia Poliakova (b. 1987, Kyiv) is a contemporary Ukrainian artist based in Kyiv. A graphic designer by education, she started painting in 2009. For the next 6 years, she continued working as a graphic designer and, in 2015, renewed her artistic practice by fusing painting with photography and digital collage, which became her signature style. Her works explore eroticism and the human body with a captivating surrealist essence.
Anna Bondar is a contemporary Ukrainian painter from Kyiv, now based in Marbella, Spain. Initially trained as a realist painter, she soon realized that the canons of the classical school of painting didn’t reflect her vision of contemporary art. She began experimenting with various genres and techniques, which eventually resulted in her unique abstract painting style.
The full-scale Russian invasion forced Bondar, who was pregnant at the time, to leave her home in Kyiv. Determined to prioritize the safety of her unborn child, Bondar made the difficult decision to leave Ukraine and seek refuge in Spain. It is within this picturesque setting that she has produced an impressive collection of over 100 artworks.
Mariko Gelman (b. 1986, Kyiv) is a Ukrainian contemporary multidisciplinary artist currently based in Prague. She works with painting, ceramics, drawing, installation, and performance. An active member of Clinical Psychoanalysis Association, Gelman is focused on exploring deep psychological themes such as self-sufficiency, self-identification, loneliness, and emotional healing in her art.
Mariko Gelman is represented by 101 Gallery in Lviv, Karas Gallery in Kyiv, and Triptych Gallery in Kyiv. Her artworks belong to the Brovdi Art collection, Abramovich Art, Guanlan Museum and private collections in Japan, Denmark, Sweden, Finland, China, Czech Republic, USA, Czech Republic, and Israel. She has exhibited widely across the globe, including Europe, North America, and Asia.
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about the prices
+1 424-422-7417
Katia Lesiuk, Sales Director
Tetiana Albitska-Kostomarova is a Ukrainian contemporary sculptor from Kharkiv. She graduated from the Kharkiv Academy of Design and Arts in 2003 with a degree in monumental sculpture. She works with natural and artificial stone, wood, bronze, and clay. The themes of womanhood and motherhood are the primary focus of her art.
In recent years, Kostomarova has predominantly created miniature-sized sculptures. Her most recent series embody a harmonious blend of sophisticated volumetric modeling, lyrical elements, and subtle humor. Each piece radiates a cheerful and carefree energy, mirroring Tetiana’s own personality and zest for life.
Additionally, Kostomarova collaborates with museums. One of her notable projects involved creating tactile replicas of renowned masterpieces to allow visually impaired visitors to engage with the paintings.
Tetiana Albitska-Kostomarova
Black Cat
marble dust, resin
9 8/10 x 8 7/10 x 6 7/10 in
$6,500
Tetiana Albitska-Kostomarova
Red Cat
marble dust, resin
9 8/10 x 8 7/10 x 6 7/10 in
$6,500
Tetiana Albitska-Kostomarova
Leopard
marble dust, resin
9 8/10 x 8 7/10 x 6 7/10 in
$6,500
Lucy Evans is a Ukrainian contemporary painter based between Kyiv, Ukraine, and Paris, France. She holds degrees from the National Academy Of Fine Art and Architecture and from the École supérieure des Beaux Arts de Paris. Lucy Evans works in the genre of psychological portrait and nu. Her paintings are infused with intricate symbolism, through which she represents the inner worlds and intimate struggles of her characters.
Lina Chanturia is a contemporary artist who delves into the intricacies of human nature and emotion. With a background of 12 years at the Kyiv Children’s Academy of Arts, her works grace numerous private and public collections, including the Ministry of Culture and Arts of Ukraine.
Central to her artistic exploration is the profound depth of emotions, utilizing metaphor to evoke introspection among viewers. The human form serves as a focal point, where Chanturia navigates themes of nudity, vulnerability, and primal essence. Her erotic series offers a personal journey into her own sexuality and self-discovery, advocating for the embrace of sensuality and passion. Through her Virgo series, she endeavors to challenge societal taboos associated with nudity, advocating for acceptance and empowerment.
Kristina Otchich-Cherniak is a Ukrainian artist based in Kyiv. She graduated from National Academy of Management Personnel of Culture and Arts with a Bachelor’s degree in art criticism and from Wroclaw University with a Master’s degree in art history. As an artist, she works in mixed media, including graphics and embroidery. Her artistic research is centered around existential and philosophical themes, as well as psychology, mental disorders, and exploration of her own personality.
Cherniak presented her solo project titled “The Shot Future” in 2022 in Marbella, Spain. In the same year, she had her second solo exhibition in Kyiv, featuring a series of works titled “Scales of Thinking.” In 2023, she presented a project “Movement. On the Brink” at Voitok Gallery in Kyiv—a study of her own mental health and the impact of war on it.
Inquire
about the prices
+1 424-422-7417
Katia Lesiuk, Sales Director