The exhibition “In Contre-Jour,” to be held as part of the project “Family Values – Family Ties,” will present a panorama of works by this couple of artists. It is also an opportunity to see a duet of two original artists who have their own style and themes, and whose roots are in the Galician soil, and who mastered their art at the Lviv Institute of Applied and Decorative Art (now the Lviv National Academy of Arts).
The exposition displays new and retrospective works which make it possible to trace the paths of the masters’ artistic search.
Marta Bazak, a master of decorative-applied art, creates marvelous tapestries, develops this trend, combines the traditional and the modern, and finds new forms of expression. Besides, she paints canvases, practices various graphic arts, and is a researcher and a teacher.
Mykola Yakovyna is a painter, a graphic artist (etching and lithograph), the author of mixed-technique works, stained-glass items, and architectural projects. He is also a public and cultural figure, an active protector of historical monuments, and, in addition, a political writer and translator of Polish literature.
MYKOLA YAKOVYNA, CONCERT, 2015 / Illustration courtesy of exhibition organizers
The couple showed themselves in each field as incredible artists, the proof of which is this exhibit which displays Bazak’s tapestries and paintings and Yakovyna’s paintings and graphics.
The exhibit’s name also contributes to a better understanding of exposition’s concept. Contre-jour is a compositional method, where a special combination of light and the object makes the image look more dramatic, deeper, more contrastive and mysterious. Mixing works, totally different in style, technique, and the manner of execution, in the same expositional space clearly shows the depth and uncommonness of Bazak’s and Yakovyna’s oeuvres. It invites the spectator to examine the works penetratingly and look for hidden contents and reflections.
The exhibit will remain open until May 13.
