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- Tractor bride
Vitalii Kravets
“This work answers several questions about the future at once. I find the tractor to be a multifaceted symbol of reflection of the present in the planned future. It is a great and all-conquering iron misogynist, put on the front lines by humanity in the fight against mother earth. Now it is all over the news we are about to destroy the planet. But it is not entirely true. The planet existed before us in absolutely different shapes and, I am sure, will continue to exist after, not at all longing for us. And she does not care in what form it will exist: covered with a thick layer of plastic, inhabited solely by cockroaches, or aflame in a continuous oil slick.
In the exclusion zone of the Chornobyl nuclear power plant, you can find today many touching stories, consisting of household items and skeletons of large-sized equipment. It is a mixture of dead ambitions and hopes, from the compost of which a completely new life grows. The bride’s attributes complete the thought of how ridiculous and childishly naive our values are in a world that doesn’t give a damn about them, the same way we once didn’t give a damn. If we want to be taken into the future, our only chance is to recognize the impasse we are approaching is too close and without alternatives.
Initially, I planned a dark, direct, almost kieferian thing, but while working I realized that childish spontaneity is more ironic and much more tragic in that particular case.”
Born in 1988 in Lviv. Lives and works in Kyiv, Ukraine.
In 2006, graduated from the Taras Shevchenko State Art School.
In 2010, graduated from the National Academy of Fine Arts and Architecture (NAOAA) in Kyiv, Ukraine.
Vitaliy works in the fields of painting and graphics, as well as in interdisciplinary cultural areas. The artist has created a number of well-known art series, illustrations for books, and decorations for performances and exhibitions.
Kravets’s works are held in private collections in Ukraine, the United Kingdom, France, the USA, Canada, Cyprus, Turkey, Austria, Germany, and Japan.
His project “Anatomy of the Invertebrates” was nominated for the Taras Shevchenko Prize in 2022 and was the first artistic response to the full-scale invasion.
Personal Exhibitions
2023 – “Landscape” – personal exhibition at the Tourism Information Center in Zaporizhzhia.
2022 – “Anatomy of the Invertebrates” – personal exhibition at the “Dukat” gallery, Kyiv, Ukraine.
2020 – “Diana and the Roosters” – personal exhibition at the “Dukat” gallery, Kyiv, Ukraine.
2019 – Personal painting exhibition at the “Suzirya” theater.
2017 – “Gorilla’s Reggit” – personal exhibition of painting and graphics, “Educatorium” gallery, Kyiv, Ukraine.
2016 – “Hugs” – personal exhibition of graphics, French Institute, Kyiv, Ukraine.
2015 – “Kravets’s Stroke” – personal painting exhibition, “Bunkermuz”, Ternopil, Ukraine.
2013 – “Angels” – personal exhibition on the birthday of Venedikt Yerofeyev, “Bacteria” gallery, Kyiv, Ukraine.
2013 – “Before Us” – personal exhibition, “Bacteria” gallery, Kyiv, Ukraine.
Selected Group Exhibitions
2023 – “Art On The Baâlefront”, Künstlerhaus, Vienna, Austria.
2022 – “Italian and Ukrainian Contemporary Graphics in Dialogue”, Casa della Memoria, Milan, Italy.
2019 – Exhibition at the “Exodus” art residency, Museum of Contemporary Art, Kyiv, Ukraine.
2019 – Exhibition during the “Exodus” art residency, Montenegro.
2018 – Joint graphics exhibition “Contemporary Ukrainian Graphics”, Chicago, USA.
2014 – Exhibition at the Ukrainian Cultural Center, Paris, France.
2014 – Residents’ exhibition “I-O”, Izmit, Turkey.
2013 – Exhibition “Ukrainian Aggression”, Kyiv, Ukraine.
2013 – “50 Most Interesting Artists of Western Ukraine”, Lviv, Ukraine.
Other Projects
2023 – Set designer and costume designer for the play “Kaidash’s Family,” Ivan Franko National Academic Drama Theater, Ivano-Frankivsk, Ukraine.
2014-2016 – Art director of the “Bacteria” gallery at the Artistic Barbican.
2013 – Performance, directing as part of “DBKLDN”, GogolFest, Kyiv, Ukraine.
2011-2012 – Set designer in the stop-motion animation studio “Novator-Film”.
2011 – Set designer for the play “The Old Man with Wings,” directed by Dmytro Honcharenko.
2011 – Set designer for the film “Mermaid,” directed by Serhiy Iliashенко.
2010 – Set designer for the film “Sorcerer Ihnat and the People,” directed by Serhiy Iliashеnko
