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.

#artemhumilevskiy #ukrainianartist #ukrainianart #photography #contemporaryart #artblog #beyondthecanvasblog

Self-portraits from the Giant series, 2020-2021

© Artem Humilevskiy

Ukrainian artists: Artem Volokitin

Artem Volokitin was born in 1981. He lives and works in Kharkiv, Ukraine's second largest city, home to 1.4 million people and less than 20 miles from the Russian border. Kharkhiv was therefore an obvious target for the invading forces. Last Sunday, Russian troops entered the city and started bombing it to the ground. We know the strategy, we have seen it in Aleppo. And in Chechnya before then.

In response to the upheavals of 2014, the so called Revolution of Dignity, the subject matter of Volokitin work shifted from the depiction of the human figure to that of violent explosions. In this picture, he has applied raging tongues of fire to a printed background that is reminiscent of Dürer. The juxtaposition between the explosion and the sky creates a disquieting mood that is suspended somewhere between the tragic reality of today's Ukraine and classical myth.

I have looked for an instagram account so I could credit his work. I found this, but the only post dates back 113 weeks. I hope Artem and his loved ones are safe.

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Artem Volokitin

Irreversible Beauty - I, 2014