Feminist Art in post-Soviet Ukraine.

One of the prominent female artists of the Ukrainian New Wave was Valeria Trubina. Her artistic language is rooted in mythology, religious motifs, and apocalyptic theories. She often explored religion and complex existential themes, expressing them in a figurative, sarcastic manner, with characters often taken from children’s magazines. Unfortunately, Trubina’s relationship with a bright Parcommune artist, Oleh Holosii, overshadowed her own work, leaving her deeply symbolic art underrated by critics and largely unexplored. Thanks to Tamara Zlobina’s research on Trubina’s art, we can discover the feminist context in her most recognized work, called “Wounded Kitty’s Going, Doggy’s Ear He’s Gnawing” (1989).

In the kitty’s image, Zlobina found a resemblance to a woman’s body: prominent breasts and mons veneris slightly covered with a cloud. The kitty quickly and steadily moves towards the viewer, evoking a sense reminiscent of El Greco’s figures. The dog’s image, according to Zlobina, serves as an antagonist to the kitten, symbolizing a man. But why is the kitty bleeding, and why don’t we see the doggy’s ear that she is supposed to be biting? Sigmund Freud’s interpretation suggests that the ear symbolizes the vulva, and a wounded ear represents menstruation. Through this perspective, the feminist statement behind “Wounded Kitty” becomes rather clear.

Yana Bystrova addresses her personal traumatic story of a breakup in her paintings of the Red Series (1989-1991). The curvaceous women with disproportionate body parts symbolise the internal fractures that shape people throughout their lives. Bystrova portrayed her friends, almost completely dissolving them in the rich red background. Through these self-therapeutic works, she addresses the universal questions and goes beyond the focal points of feminist or gender themes in art.

“Only the Healthy Will Survive” is a family portrait of Oleh Tistol and Marina Skugareva, whose bodies Bystrova united in a single expressive androgynous image. The title of the painting is a phrase belonging to Kostiantyn Reunov, Bystrova’s colleague and husband at the time.

Yana Bystrova’s development as an artist was largely influenced by Zoya Lerman, a prominent Ukrainian painter, sculptor, and art teacher. In her works, Lerman masterfully conveyed the plasticity of women’s bodies, their movement and rhythms. Since most of her creative endeavours took place during the period of official socialist realism, Zoya Lerman remained an underground artist for most of her career. Her first solo exhibition took place only in 1994 in Kyiv. Her artistic career went through many ups and downs, including both prosperity and complete professional isolation. Nevertheless, Lerman’s artistic legacy still continues to influence many of Ukrainian famous contemporary artists.

When discussing the post-Soviet feminist scene in Kharkiv, one cannot overlook the significance of the book “Feminism by other name” in Ukraine: Women representing themselves, edited by Irina Zherabkina and Nina Vynogradova (2000). This work stands as one of the pioneering texts on art feminism among Kharkiv’s authors. The book includes profound philosophical insights and emotional revelations, discussing the spiritual and moral quests of women. Among the artists featured in this book, the brightest ones are Yevgenia Morgulyan and Olena Lisnycha.

Yevgenia Morgulyan’s paintings exude exquisite refinement, intimacy, and a sense of etherealness. The delicate interplay of light and shadow in her works evokes a melancholic yet profoundly sensitive response, as if beckoning the viewer into a realm where enchanting, vivacious characters dwell. In the midst of a hostile patriarchal world, Morgulyan’s art offers solace, harmony, and the quiet assurance that all shall be well. It imparts a gentle narrative, suggesting that fragments of memory, traces of a happy childhood, and other cherished intangible essences can always be rediscovered within the depths of one’s soul. For many years, Yevgenia Morgulyan served as the chief set designer at the Kharkiv Regional TV and Radio Company, leaving an indelible mark on the cultural landscape of the region. She passed away in 2023. 

Olena Lisnycha employs a diverse palette in her paintings, ranging from ironic and sardonic to lyrical, tender, and spiritually imbued images. Using oil paints, she creates works

that are essentially graphical in nature, possessing both chromatic richness and achromatic subtlety. Particularly interesting are her monochromatic works, teeming with dynamism and diversity of textures. Lisnycha juxtaposes tender female portraits with philosophical compositions that brim with humor and satire, offering incisive commentary on the realities of human existence.

In 2014, the Kharkiv Municipal Gallery hosted an exhibition titled “Exit.” The show featured works by Yevgenia Morgulyan, Olena Lisnycha, and Nina Vynogradova, including paintings, graphics, and objects that served as a means of “exit” for the artists, both in philosophical and physical sense. The exhibition’s theme, encapsulated in the statement “No matter how impenetrable a wall may appear, in truth, it is but a gateway,” invited viewers to contemplate the idea of exit—a breakthrough through the wall or a return to one’s innermost self.

The emergence of women on the Ukrainian post-Soviet art scene was not only happening in Kyiv. Another prominent female artist in 1990s Ukraine was Olena Kudinova, a painter and designer from Kharkiv who solidly proved her spot next to male artists by having her solo exhibition in 1988 in Kharkiv and presenting Ukraine abroad. Her special technique lied in fusing oil, watercolor, and silk screen printing to achieve a semi figurative effect akin to objectless works of Wassily Kandinsky. Kudina’s main character is color, and in her works, it becomes not a mere abstraction but an exposed nerve, immediately evoking deep emotions in a viewer.

Natalia Mironenko is another brilliant representative of the 1990s Kharkiv art scene. An established pioneer of color etching, watercolor and tempera in Ukraine, she created highly philosophical pieces, full of deep symbolism and mystery. Into her vibrant graphic pieces, Mironenko organically and delicately wove exotic Japanese motifs. Aesthetically and emotionally thrilling, her works evoke a beautiful sense of Universal harmony, captivating and mesmerizing the viewer.

Tetiana Gershuni, also known as Taya Galagan, began her artistic practice in the 1990s in Kyiv. She was unable to enter the painting department of the Kyiv Art Institute, so she opted for the department of art criticism. At that time, there was a stereotype in Ukrainian society that one could never become an artist if they pursued art criticism.

However, Taya emancipated herself from the close-minded society by completing a Masters program of fine arts in University of Saskatchewan in Canada. Taya Galagan is a multi-disciplinary artist whose oeuvre straddles paintings, installations, and video art. In her video works, she uses human physicality as a means of expressing female experiences. In her work “Comparative Anatomy” (1994), Taya alternately shows

men’s and women’s bodily parts without revealing the whole body. This creates an impression of a body that possesses both gender features, alluding to the equal rights of both men and women for emotions and sensuality. In Taya’s work “Dialogue” (1999), two women, Taya and fellow artist Lisa Gorovitz, face each other, mirroring each other’s movements as they lean in for a kiss. This work is about the woman’s urge to discover herself, her emotions and desires.

One of the first artists in Ukraine to directly address the issues of gender equality, physicality and sexuality, as well as traumatic experience, was Oksana Chepelyk, an artist and sculptor from Kyiv. Among everything, her works raise questions about personal value and the use of the human body in politics, advertising, and as an object of aesthetics. Through her art, Chepelyk elevated the themes of pregnancy, childbirth, the raising of children and home-keeping from solely “women’s topics” to public discourse, bringing them into the spotlight and thereby removing the taboo surrounding them. Her works received high praise from international critics, earning her numerous awards. 

Chepelyk’s project “The Birth of Venus’’ (1995) featured beautiful women, elegantly parading along the podium with smiles on their faces and dragging giant polyethylene snail shells attached to their backs. These shells likely allude to Botichelli’s Venus, born out of the spindrift—an archetypal depiction of a woman as a radiant, perfectly beautiful goddess.

In order to be perceived as “worthy” in modern society, the woman is expected to constantly maintain this goddess-like beauty, while also being a perfect mother and a housekeeper. Chepelyk made the shells transparent and placed them behind flawlessly looking models to depict the large amount of hard work that women do to meet the societal expectations, which remains invisible by society and largely unappreciated, yet, is constantly weighing on women’s shoulders. 

One of the most renowned projects by Oksana Chepelyk is “Genesis” (2008), a social sculpture work where she probes the

themes of motherhood and the nation’s reproduction. Chepelyk started working on this project in 2004, during her own pregnancy. It involved a series of photo and video works depicting a woman’s body in macro and micro dimensions. The rounded shapes of a woman are juxtaposed with the Ukrainian pysanka, an Easter egg symbolizing birth and inception. The woman’s pregnant belly is likened to planet Earth that gives birth to civilizations. The birth of a child is portrayed as a Big Bang, an explosion that will fundamentally alter the universal order and the life of a woman. On the other hand, “Genesis” also seems to allude to questions of infant trade through selling the stem cells.

In the 1990s, one of the most globally renowned and successful Ukrainian female artists, Vlada Ralko, began her artistic career. Ralko is the recipient of the prize of the Ukrainian Nationwide Painting Triennial in 2001, the CCN Graz scholarship in 2007, and the He for She: Women in Arts Award in 2019. At the beginning of Ralko’s emergence as an artist, her works were widely praised as being “unfeminine”—meaning that the artwork is deeper in its concept than a mere decorative object. In the post-Soviet society, women who created “serious” art were deemed “masculine.” Ralko’s art explores themes of freedom, identity, existential pains and suffering, delving into political and social contexts. Her works were showcased at Lincoln Center (New York), Rebellminds Gallery (Berlin), Kunstlerhaus (Vienna, Austria), Saatchi Gallery (London), and other art venues worldwide. 

“Indeed, a body, punished for its perspectives of human choice, has a repulsive appearance—all those sweet wounds of Christ, dimmed tears of Mary, consecrated spit-soaked bodies, disgusting sores, pierced eyes, and severed breasts—all such indecent, consecrated, and exhibited on display in anticipation of the pure kisses of the faithful. Consecrated pain as the legitimization of female orgasm in the form of a tombstone weeping or divine ecstasy. In the hidden, stifled by the pillow of shame, traditions, and fear, explosive energy is concealed—and it must be liberated through the majesty of art.” — Vlada Ralko

Marina Skugareva was a Ukrainian New Wave artist who focused on the depiction of a woman’s body . She painted from life, capturing not only physical forms of her models but also portraying them as emotional individuals with unique life stories. The nudity in her paintings serves almost as a metaphor, expressing a deep connection and mutual trust between a painter and a model. Skugareva often enhanced her portraits with embroidered pieces, adding volume and festivity that gracefully echoes female bodies. Interestingly, male portraits, if present in Skugareva’s paintings at all, are mostly positioned in the background, acting as a supplement for the main story. 

Skugareva’s most fundamental work is a series named “Constellation of Michaelis, or Good Housewives’’ (1997-2007). In this project, she portrayed naked women in a basic household environment, surrounded by kitchen stoves, dining tables, and kettles. This series is Skugareva’s intimate reflection on motherhood and housekeeping, composed of numerous felt-tip or ball pen drawings on A4 papers. By candidly painting her environment and emotional state, Skugareva was trying to find beauty in her household chores. 

Maryna Skugareva’s work is feminine, but without martyrdom and emphasis on her gender—it’s rather about the natural acceptance of the inevitability and incomprehensibility of this division of the world, the acceptance of gender as the fate of the body. Skugareva doesn’t deem her sex as “the second,” like Simone de Beauvoir does, and she doesn’t feel the need to fight. Instead, she uses her female nature at its current state to convey what she feels as accurately as possible. 

“This series started with the birth of my child. At that time, I had no one to help me around the house, and after two months postpartum, I realized that I’m losing my mind. This was the moment I started drawing whatever surrounded me: a stove, a table, a gas water heater. How could I draw something from my imagination while being locked in my kitchen with a child? The art must be honest—only then it is interesting. I didn’t have to leave my house to remain an artist.”
— Marina Skugareva 

In 2022, Marina Skugareva and Anastasiia Podervianska presented a joint project named “Homeworks,” which took place in the space of the “Art without Borders” foundation in Kyiv. Through paintings, embroidery, and graphics, Skugareva and Podervianska reflect on a woman’s role as a mother and an artist, romanticizing mundane routines and focusing on their importance and inevitability in both life and art. There is no division on “high” and “low:” House cleaning, family portraits, children’s school journals, cooking food, wearing beautiful dresses, creating art—all of it matters and is of equal importance. Each letter and each flower plays its role in a woman’s life, filling each day with a unique sense. 

Anastasia Podervianska is a contemporary Ukrainian artist from Kyiv, raised in a family of artists. Her oeuvre straddles paintings on various surfaces, including canvas, wooden boards, and glass, but over the last few years Podervianska has mostly been working with embroidery and textile—an ancient female craft that has been practiced in Ukrainian homes for centuries. Through

her works, Podervianska refreshes the perception of decorative embroidery and turns it into a contemporary art medium, fearlessly experimenting with contemporary ideas and scenes on the traditional ethno-romantic background. For example, she often alludes to Ancient Greek ceramic images, offering her own interpretation of ancient stories. “Harpies” embroidery by
Podervianska features mythical creatures, half women half birds, surrounded by

unexpected kitschy sweet flower branches, creating tension. The tension grows as we notice an image of a skull and a penis with wings. Podervianska intentionally amplifies the conflict, going beyond the boundaries of expectations. In doing so, she delves deep into female sexual liberation—a theme that holds the primary focus of her art.