Kehinde Wiley’s Archeology of Silence, Fondazione Cini

“That is the archaeology I am unearthing: The spectre of police violence and state control over the bodies of young Black and Brown people all over the world.” - Kehinde Wiley

As I was walking through the dimly lit halls of this show this morning, all I could think about was the news of the umpteenth shooting in the US, the one in Buffalo where a 19 year old killed 10 people. In a way, I felt like I was at the crime scene.

And that was it. I realised I had no desire to read about the exhibition, there was no need. Simply because the link between the works and the topic was so painfully clear. Wiley's figurative language of the fallen hero, the theme of the show, speaks to the everyday reality of racially-motivated crimes. These black youngsters may look peacefully asleep, but their contorted poses tell a different story.

Wiley continues to challenge and reconceptualise the Western canon with monumental paintings and statues that boldly aspire to berninesque plasticity. Today I also noticed a big nod to the blue landscapes of the Renaissance. In short, Wiley does his usual Wiley thing: it's grandiose, it’s decorative, it's relevant, and it works.

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Ukrainian artists: Nikolay Lukin

I had been following Nikolay Lukin on Instagram for some time, and this morning he followed me back. Дякую, Микола. His latest post is a week old, it shows us a wildflower meadow and trees in bloom in Odessa, which Nikolay captioned: Spring walks hand in hand with death.

The work I have chosen is not recent, it's from 2016. The Ukrainian people have been living with Russian invaders since 2014, when Putin dispatched his army to the country's borders for 'military operations', eventually culminating in the illegal annexation of Crimea, the biggest land-grab in Europe since World War II. So it should come as no surprise that the theme of war has been so prevalent in the body of work of Ukrainian artists. Sunflowers, soniashnyk, have long been a beloved symbol of Ukrainian national identity. In more recent times, they have emerged as an international symbol of resistance, unity and hope. In this painting, Nikolay has painted two bright sunflowers next to a soldier, as if to protect him in his mission.

It seems to me that the news cycle, and with it the public's attention, is slowly but surely drifting away from the horror of what's happening in Ukraine, and I can only assume the media are having a tough time attracting investments from advertisers. It happened with Covid, now it's happening with the war. Who would want their brand associated with such bleakness? And with the Russian disinformation machine hard at work, the news are littered with conspiracy theories, racism, xenophobia and hate. This is a really tricky time to navigate the news. I have added a link to a list of Ukrainian-based journalists, experts and media in my bio.

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Nikolay Lukin

Archetypes Diptych, 2016

Courtesy xp-art agency

Ukrainian artists: Artem Humilevskiy

"During the quarantine period, I began to create staged self-portraits at home. In the photo, which was the beginning of the series, I seem to be hiding behind house plants in the corner, symbolically and succinctly denoting the existing dead-end state of each person during a pandemic. In my subsequent works, although I turn to self-irony, nevertheless, photographing myself in the nude, I live moments of self-acceptance. Over time, the series of self-portraits went beyond the fun of self-isolation and became a personal diary, where each picture can be associated with important events, thoughts or intimate feelings.

The giant awakens empathy with his spontaneity and openness. And if the portrait of a person is his story, then the space around the object builds its meaning." - Artem Humilevskiy

There isn't much I can add to Artem's words really. In his photos, which I find extraordinarily moving and uplifting in all their self-deprecating candour, I see and feel exactly everything he says. I'm just happy to have discovered his work today.

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Self-portraits from the Giant series, 2020-2021

© Artem Humilevskiy