The Municipal Art Gallery of Odesa (located in the Vorontsov Palace) is housing the exhibition, held as part of the charity campaign “The Black Sea Artistic Sotnia for the Armed Forces of Ukraine.” The Odesa art union’s idea has spread to Lviv, Poltava, Kyiv, and Uzhhorod, where it is successfully implemented in a variety of formats. In the future, the campaign can go international. By the way, it was Leopolitans who pioneered this direction, involving in their events not only Kyivan artists, but also representatives of the Ukrainian diaspora in the West, as well as Slovenia and Moldova.
Meanwhile, Zakarpattia artists, unwilling to hold public events, created their own website “Support Soldiers from Zakarpattia” (http://ukrtoloka. com.ua/), which enabled them to sell dozens of works for over 30,000 hryvnias, thus raising funds for their charity supporting the troops fighting in the anti-terrorist operation (ATO) area.
The Odesites’ exhibition is dominated by so-called interior paintings, done in the traditional manner of the Southern school and being mostly landscapes and still lifes. Visitors take an interest in works by Honored Artists of Ukraine Mykola Prokopenko, Anatolii and Halyna Kravchenko, famous Odesa artists Ihor Bozhko, Ivan Oros, Serhii Lozovsky, Olena Havdzynska, Halyna Pavliuk, Natalia Honcharova, Olha Kotliarova, Natalia Loza, Larysa Demianyshyna, Viktor Poteriaiko and others. Works of young artists are interesting and full of light, particularly those by Yulia Hrachyk who recently graduated from the National Academy of Arts.
Director of the gallery, artist and participant of the event, Nadia Fomychova commented: “The artists may not remain indifferent amid the predicament now facing our country. We hope that this exhibition will resonate in people’s hearts, and it will go on show in Kyiv, Lviv, and possibly abroad. Some works will be donated to our soldiers who are currently in need of increased public attention.”
Let us note that the exhibition is a traveling one and is held in several stages, so creative individuals who have not provided their works because of various circumstances still have a chance to join the campaign. One of the issues troubling some union members has to do with the need to ensure targeted delivery of the works, so that paintings will get to their intended addressees, and not turn out in the homes of army officials.
A leading participant of the project, Air Force Colonel (Ret.), currently head of the Konotop Cossack Sich Oleksandr Kravchenko from Sumy region tried to assuage these fears: “We want to use primarily informal channels, including volunteer movement that has developed in many regions of Ukraine as well as personal acquaintances among the military. As for volunteers, we are establishing contacts with a group of people who work directly with military personnel, supplying humanitarian aid to their countrymen serving in the ATO area. We have recruit training centers in southern Ukraine, for example, in Chabanka near Odesa there are also military bases, which are now rebuilt after being disbanded, in particular one near Rozdilna. We can donate some works there.”
Curator and exhibitor Anatolii Kravchenko said: “The campaign has already gone nationwide. Lviv artists were among the first to emulate our idea, and they soon started their own campaign “Artists for Soldiers.” As soon as my interview on the Odesa initiative was published by Den, I sent it to my colleague Taras Didula for information. Leopolitans have even got ahead of us, as they have already held three auctions, featuring various formats to boot, one of them in the resort of Truskavets. Relying on their international connections, Leopolitans aim to show the exhibition outside Ukraine, for example in Spain. Lviv also has valuable experience regarding lottery procedure that includes both silent and regular auctions. I accidentally met a young man during the celebration of Independence Day in Odesa who called himself the representative of the 5th Odesa Self-Defense Sotnia. He also showed interest in our campaign. Opening of the exhibition is just the beginning of the real effort.”
From September 11, the exhibition will continue at the Odesa Ukrainian Cultural Center, with the charity auction held there as well.
