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#NEIVANMADE
According to an ancient Ukrainian tradition, a girl getting married would bring a dowry into the newly formed family. Often, this was clothing made over the years by all the women in her family. This tradition continued for centuries, even in the toughest times.
With the onset of Russia’s full-scale invasion, Ukrainians massively rushed to defend their own state. One of the most common activities became weaving camouflage nets. Initially, the main material for them was clothing that people wore out, which was cut up and woven into a single canvas. I perceive this process as a kind of revival of the dowry tradition—a symbolic act of individual self-sacrifice for the defense of the collective.
The project “Dowry” addresses the problem of the traumatic experience of war, the desire to reclaim what has been lost, to survive the trauma, literally to unravel, sort through, and stitch back together a fractured reality. Thus, piece by piece, the creation of the net is reproduced in reverse order—to the dress. However, the inability to restore the lost parts, that is, to forget the traumatic experience, leads to substitution, the creation of something entirely different, which can only be the future. This process is performed by a kind of Moirai—women from three generations of one family, who recreate the forgotten tradition of jointly sewing a wedding gift.
“Dowry” consists of three videos projected onto the wall. In them, the hands of three women continuously work on three processes. In the center, on the table, lies a finished dress as a result of the experienced trauma, an unremarkable yet sincere gift to the next generation.
Born in 1993 in Lviv, Ukraine.
Artist, illustrator, Doctor of Philosophy. Primary media – digital art, painting, multimedia installation.
Areas of interest – the formation of modern Ukrainian identity and the transformation of elements of traditional culture as expressions of collective memory.
The future, which is being shaped right now, is reflected through archetypes and symbols, allowing belief in tomorrow to be viewed as an imagined memory that exists in collective consciousness even before it appears in reality.
The central image in the work – a smiling shadow. A figure that can transform into any archetype, carry any symbolic meaning, and reflect any content.
Education
2023 – Lviv National Academy of Arts PhD, Fine Arts, Decorative Arts, Restoration
2013 – Lviv Trush College of Decorative and Applied Arts Associate degree, Department of Restoration of Artworks
2019 – Lviv National Academy of Arts Master’s degree, Department of Graphic Design
Selected solo exhibitions and projects
2024 – “When We Were Shadows” Gunpowder Tower, Lviv
2023 – “Posters of Wartime” Tourist Information Center of Zaporizhzhia, Zaporizhzhia
2022 – “War Diaries” The Why Not Gallery, Tbilisi, Georgia
2020 – “Present” Planet Earth
2020 – “Manifestation” Happening, Lviv
2018 – “49” Performance, “Tse” Gallery, Lviv
2016 – “The Sleepless Eye” Mikhail Hrushevsky State Memorial Museum, Lviv
2015 – “Church Militant” Lviv Palace of Arts, Lviv
2015 – “Before the Dawn” Sholem Aleichem Museum, Kyiv
Selected group exhibitions and projects
2024 – “Fake (f)or Real: A history of forgery and falsification” Greece, Bulgaria, Hungary, Romania, and Sweden
2023 – “Our Fire Is Stronger Than Your Bombs” Dortmund Library, Hanover, USA
2023 – “Ukraine War Posters. Lviv Art Center Exhibition” Reykjavík SIM Gallery, Iceland
2022 – “Ukraine. Under a Different Sky” Ujazdowski Castle Centre for Contemporary Art, Warsaw, Poland
2022 – “Art Brings Victory Closer” iFest Republic, Lviv
2022 – “Ukrainian Wartime Poster” Ukrainian House, Kyiv
2022 – “When Walls Talk” House of European History, Brussels, Belgium
2022 – “Art in a Time of War” Westflügel Leipzig, Leipzig, Germany
2022 – “Stand With Ukraine” Association of Graphic Designers 4th Block, Ukraine
2022 – “Transit Zone. Exit Gate No. 2022” “Mytets” Gallery, Kyiv
2021 – Avant-Garde Festival Lviv Palace of Arts, Lviv
2021 – “Exhibition from the Residency in Bakota in Khmelnytskyi” Museum-Library of the Podillya Society named after H. S. Skovoroda, Khmelnytskyi
2021 – “The Great Vault” Poltava Academic Regional Puppet Theatre
2021 – “Second All-Ukrainian Levkas Biennale” White World Contemporary Art Center, Kyiv
2019 – Sun Territory Festival Vinnytsia
2019 – “InkBox” Performance, Mystetskyi Arsenal, Kyiv
2018 – “New Wave Exhibition” iFest Republic, Lviv
2018 – “Sleepless Night” “Tse” Gallery, Lviv
2017 – “Mezzanine” “Tse” Gallery, Lviv
2016 – “Gothic!” “Katastrofa” Gallery, Lviv
Institutional and Public Collections
Chase Contemporary, New York, USA
House of European History, Brussels, Belgium
Ujazdowski Castle Centre for Contemporary Art, Warsaw, Poland
Dortmund Library, Hanover, USA
Mikhail Hrushevsky Estate-Museum, Lviv
M. Hrushevsky Historical Memorial Museum, Kyiv
Sholem Aleichem Museum, Kyiv
“Tse” Gallery, Lviv
National Center of Folk Culture “Ivan Honchar Museum”, Kyiv
National Memorial to the Heavenly Hundred Heroes – Museum of the Revolution of Dignity