Research Platform: Transformation
Artists: Oleg Holosiy, Eduard Kolodiy, Oleksandr Roitburd, Vasyl Tsaholov, Illia Chichkan, Svitlana Martynchyk, and Ihor Stiopin, Institution of Unstable Thoughts (Oleksandr Hnylytskyi and Lesia Zaiats).
The exhibition “Transformation” focuses on showcasing predominantly paintings that reflect transitional processes occurring in contemporary Ukrainian art at the threshold of change (late 1980s – early 2000s). The works presented at the exhibition demonstrate a renewal of artistic language connected with the transformation of the system of thinking and reflect the transition “from one cultural phenomenon to another.” The possibility of interpretation, play with the world history of art and culture, and the metaphorical nature of the artistic language are the main features of the works presented at the exhibition.
Defining features for most works are irony, a playful attitude towards reality, and the perception of art as a game, which sometimes takes on transgressive forms (I. Chichkan). Trying to create an absurd picture about nothing, S. Martynchyk and I. Stiopin in their work refer to the painting by French journalist and writer A. Alle “Battle of the Negroes in a Cave Late at Night.” The phantasmagoric half-fictional half-quoted works of O. Holosiy appeal to the viewer’s sensory perception, providing space for free interpretations.
The exhibition also demonstrates artists’ attempts to go beyond the painting. Thus, Institution of Unstable Thoughts (O. Hnylytskyi and L. Zaiats) through simple optical illusions creates an “analog” animated picture that unfolds in real time and space before the viewer.V. Tsaholov in the early 2000s returns again to the format of a large painting, “introducing” his own performative experience of the 90s into it.
Curator: Tetiana Kochubynska
