The Children’s Art Academy in Obolon is hosting a one-man show to present paintings and drawings by young Kyiv artist Dmytro Filatov. He started with refined and penetrating variations on the theme of Far East drawings. Before long, he decided to move on, even though the works sold very well. Then, instead of traditional flowers, pavilions, and Richard the Lion’s Heart’s Castle, the artist started to depict the majestic Big City, a gigantic modern metropolis, full of ramble and movement. Maybe this is Kyiv. Maybe. As seen and created by the artist, it seems many times bigger than it is in reality. Anyway, in one case he names it directly: My City . In this nameless metropolis of Dmytry Filatov, the spectator’s attention is attracted primarily by the uncomfortable city outskirts with their electrical wires, trains, apartment houses, packs of semi-wild dogs and completely wild cats, where people rise up in elevators or go down to the underground stations. This Big City is an inexhaustible source for plots. Sometimes it appears to form a complete novella, at others is seems to cut short in the middle of the sentence. It also keeps many secrets, some of them absolutely mystic. One could say that this is a true resort for spiritual inhabitants as much as the pernicious city dwellers. However, even spirits in the Metropolis are rather modern: angels sit in cafes, while devils prefer horrible rooms where there is nothing but a bottle on the table and an electric bulb hanging from the ceiling.
