The US Embassy in Ukraine and Lviv ICONART Gallery of Sacred Art have organized an art exhibition. Paintings by Oleksandr Antoniuk, wood carvings by Sashko Brundikov, icons on wood panels by Petro Humeniuk, Tetiana Duman, Roman Zilinok, Olha Kravchenko, Ivanka Krypiakevych-Dymyd, Serhii Radkevych, Uliana Tomkevych, and Danylo Turetsky, icons on glass by Taras Lozynsky, Ostap Lozynsky, Uliana Nyshchuk-Borysiak, Oksana Romaniv-Triska, and images on canvas by Natalia Rusetska are on display in the embassy’s premises.
The ICONART Gallery, established in 2010, is a quite young institution, specializing in original works, mostly religiously-themed and often based on climactic stories from the Bible. Almost all works it exhibits are by Lviv artists.
For example, Ivanka Krypiakevych-Dymyd (by the way, she is a granddaughter of the famous Lviv historian Ivan Krypiakevych) presented her Blue Icon of Mother of God at the exhibition:
“Firstly, I prepared the wood panel, covering it in blue paint. The next part of my work felt like extracting the light out of it. I did it backwards, going from darkness to light. I once saw similar frescoes, reproduction of the 12th century’s work, where entirely blue walls of the church had bright ocher images of saints very delicately painted on them. It stroke me as fantastically modern-looking. I can say that the deeper one goes into the depths of the ages, the more they speak. I understand the 11th century’s works better than those created in the 17th century.”
“I like the works on display. They are very interesting, executed in different techniques, with many of them adhering to the primitivist style widely used for depicting biblical characters in the early church period. I seem to recall that only in the later epochs, pressured by sponsors, artists began to depict Jesus, the Mother of God, or the apostles crowned and richly attired. In fact, they wore ordinary clothes as they lived among ordinary people. After all, fine garments are not synonymous with beauty,” director-general of the VATT expert consulting and training center Valentyn Tykhonenko shares his impressions with us. “Take, say, Turetsky’s painting Emmanuel, and you will see it is alive. Look at Jesus’ eyes – they are full of life.”
Actually, the exhibition has been organized by the US Embassy in Ukraine to support the young gallery which brings such talented artists together. Having invited prominent guests, mostly painting connoisseurs, the organizers held a closed auction. The proceeds will be used to develop the gallery.
“This is our multi-use room where we often hold art events,” the embassy’s Counselor for Public Affairs, Education and Culture Eric Johnson sums up. “We have a new exhibition here every two months. For example, a Crimean Tatar painters exhibition preceded this one. We hope to hold Ivan Prykhodko exhibition here following the ICONART collaborative event. We are dedicated to the promotion and support of Ukrainian artists.”
