“Long before we met we had the same dreams.”
Vladimir Nabokov
“When people meet face to face, something always happens. Obstacles that you thought were insurmountable before no longer seem so bad… I wonder what will happen when the paintings of two artists meet?!” – enquires artist Anton Tarasyuk, whose heartfelt and ironic works often feature birds. From Hitchcockian ravens to the legendary Phoenix bird, from gentle love doves to yellow rubber duckies, the young artist calls upon this winged ‘totem’ to convey his own feelings: “When I create self-portraits or portraits of Ksenia, I try to capture our condition at a given point in our lives. Our dialogue is not just a conversation between ourselves, but with the world around us… In order to allow the viewers to talk with us, even when we are not present, we have charged our paintings with certain feelings.”
“People’s actions define the meaning of a particular colour, its symbolism, not the other way round,” – asserts Ksenia Datsiuk, the artist behind the colourful, lyrical canvases that exude a confident academic training despite their seemingly nonchalant style. They reveal to us the private world of the young painter. Scenes from daily life familiar to every woman are transformed no longer appear trivial, but instead become artistic events. Ksenia adored painting since she was a little girl, and had a special fascination for portraiture and the female figure. Before starting any formal artistic education, she helped her artist mother to complete her monumental commissions. Time spent in the workshops of the National Academy of Fine Arts and Architecture, as well as the discussions she enjoyed there with many artists, defined the trajectory of her quest for a personal style. “Dialogues. A woman’s image dissolves in her environment. She is presented in her natural habitat. She is in dialogue. With herself? Or with her surroundings? These are not precise portraits (which is why there are no faces), but rather figures, female bodies that represent the feminine condition. The title of the exhibition also refers to the dialogues between the two of us, two personalities who have decided to share a life and a workshop.”
According to Myroslava Hartmond, the exhibition curator and managing director of Triptych: Global Arts Workshop, “there are many similarities between the work of Anton Tarasyuk and Ksenia Datsiuk, but there are just as many differences! A scientist employs the method of comparative analysis to reveal the essence of a phenomenon. In the same way, we hope that observing the works of two young artists, who were shaped by Ukraine’s top fine art institution, but whose backgrounds, character, and style are so different, the viewer may discover something new about Ukraine’s new generation of contemporary art.”
The exhibition will be on display from the 7th to the 20th March 2019, daily 11.00-19.00, entrance is free.
The launch event will take place on Thursday 7th March 2019 at 19.00.
ABOUT THE ARTISTS
Ksenia Datsiuk was born in Lviv in 1994 into a family of artists and sculptors. She graduated from the Lesya Ukrainka Eastern European National University in Lutsk and the National Academy of Fine Arts and Architecture in Kyiv (NAOMA). Her portfolio includes solo exhibitions at the Hetmans Museum (Kyiv), the Palmgren Gallery (Lviv), the Contemporary Arts Centre in Ivano-Frankivsk; a joint exhibition with Anton Tarasyuk at the A. Belyi Fine Arts Museum (Chornomorsk); and various exhibitions with the National Union of Artists of Ukraine. Her works are part of private collections in Ukraine, Belarus, the USA, Canada, China, Italy, France and the collection of the A. Belyi Fine Arts Museum.
Anton Tarasyuk was born in Alchevsk, Luhansk region, in 1986. From an early age he painted under the tutelage of the best local artists. He graduated from the art school of his native city, but wouldn’t enter the academy for another 15 years, having devoted many years to spiritual ministry and to recovering from a debilitating illness. Wheelchair-bound when he entered the National Academy of Fine Arts and Architecture, Anton studied painting there for two years, choosing a new path in both his creative and personal life. Since 2015 he has exhibited widely with the National Union of Artists of Ukraine. In 2017, he showed his work together with Ksenia Datsiuk at the A. Belyi Fine Arts Museum (Chornomorsk) in a joint show titled ‘New Works’, and in 2018 held his solo exhibition ‘Liberation’ there. His works are part of private collections in Ukraine, Austria, and the USA.
When and where:
07.03 – 20.03.2019
Triptych: Global Arts Workshop
34 Andriyivskyy Uzviz, Kyiv, Ukraine
Admission is free.
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