Ukraine: Courage to create. The anti-war group exhibition of Ukrainian artists

Curators

Anna Nesterenko

Artists

Vitaly Khoma

ELIS luna

Natan Markman

Ona Telos

Alina Kostrichenko

Olga Sherstyuk

Zlata Kontseva

Diana Berg

The Koppel Project is pleased to present:

Ukraine: Courage to create. The anti-war group exhibition of Ukrainian artists.

Due to the full-scale Russian invasion of Ukraine, millions of Ukrainians were forced to flee their homes, abandoning their normal lives and plans, or fight the enemy. This is equally true of Ukrainian artists and the country's cultural life. Many Ukrainian cultural monuments and artefacts have already been destroyed, such as pieces by Maria Primachenko, a well-known Ukrainian artist of the twentieth century, which were partially destroyed by a shell in the Ivankiv Museum in Kyiv region. And if you look at photos from Kharkiv, Odesa, and other Ukrainian cities where the war has been going on for months, you'll see monuments covered with sandbags and fences, which ordinary citizens used to protect them from bombs, putting their lives at risk.

However, it is impossible to prevent the entire country's cultural life from taking place. Even in such conditions, history indicates that the creative flow never stops. All forms of cataclysms are accompanied by art, including wars, revolutions, and conflict. Works of art can be either doping, a source of inspiration to live and fight, or mercy, a tool for conversation and knowledge production.

Using the former cells at the Station, the artists hope to utilise their art to connect with London audiences by presenting the experience of the invasion and war, as well as the experiences of both Ukrainians who remain in their country and those who have managed to flee. The exhibition artworks were created in bomb shelters under constant shelling; on the route to the rescue and in unknown locations of foreign countries; in safety, but in dread and agony for loved ones. They were made, above all, with hope and courage - the courage to create, express yourself, stand up for your country, and fight in times of war.

These artworks travelled to London from Kyiv in the same way that any refugee would: days on the road via ruined and mined roads, under constant threat of bombardment, hour-long queues at the border, through a foreign country, and eventually, by plane to the exhibition. Works of art do not require visas to enter the UK, but artists and other Ukrainians, as well as many refugees from across the world, do, therefore you will not see them at this exhibition. The artists have been stripped of their homes, income, and belongings, but they continue to fight, work, and create despite their new conditions.

We believe that our courage and the courage of the people who support us are capable of incredible things, because “life will win over death, and the light will win over darkness”.

ABOUT THE ARTISTS

VITALY KHOMA (1976, Kyiv, Ukraine) is a contemporary Ukrainian artist, based in Kyiv. He finished the National Academy of Fine Art and Architecture, Kyiv in 1997. During his career, he participated in various exhibitions and residences both in Ukraine and abroad. Vitaly makes his artworks from the fence boards because they “always were material for protests, in which it was possible to express your thoughts, with impunity reproducing them in any form”.

ELIS IUNA (1988, Kyiv, Ukraine) is a multidisciplinary Kyiv artist. She investigates the culture and mentality of collage, the other side of mistakes and imperfections, exploring the body and physicality and the world around her through performance, installation, text, collage, photography and video. She prefers to stay on the verge of rawness and marginal beauty creating her own dystopian magic. Elis’s artworks are very performative physical pieces, they are full of psychological stories and dynamic.

NATAN MARKMAN (1994, Kyiv, Ukraine) is a Kyiv based artist, that works primarily with figurative painting and graphics, interactive installation, video and audio. He uses his artistic practice to reflect and explore modern Ukrainian and global socio-cultural and socio-political reality. In his work Natan attempts to visualize internal mechanisms that make real, virtual, mythology and ideology functionally similar, yet structurally different. In such a way, he often addresses the subjects of historical memory, political oppression and authority. Natan finished The National Academy of Fine Arts and Architecture, Kyiv in 2018 and currently studies at Universität für Angewandte Kunst Wien (The University of Applied Arts Vienna).

ALINA KOSTRICHENKO (1984, Severodonetsk, Ukraine) is a Ukrainian-Estonian artist, currently based in Venice. She has always been interested in naive art, the art of primitive peoples, drawings in medieval manuscripts, as well as the joyful and open colours of the early Renaissance, and in her works, she tries to develop her own style based on a combination and rethinking of these periods and styles of art, while raising difficult social issues. Alina has studied at the Ca' Foscari University of Venice.

OLGA SHERSTYUK (2000, Kyiv, Ukraine) is a young Ukrainian artist and art teacher, based in Kyiv. She received the Diploma of Education, Visual and Creative Arts at Sheridan College, Canada and currently studies at the University of the Arts London on the Illustration course. She works in mixed media, often using photography and video, as well as oil and acrylics. Olga worked as the videographer and director of Vitaly Khoma’s "Food Collection” show project.

ZLATA KONSTEVA (1992, Kryvyi Rih, Ukraine) is an artist and photographer, born in Ukraine, raised in France and currently based in London. She is a member of the protest art group Art of Rebel, specialising in artistic protest, videos and performances. She is passionate about oil paintings and collages. Zlata finished her BA in Applied Arts at the University of Lorraine, France in 2015 and MA in Digital Media, at the University of Brighton, UK in 2020.

ONA TELOS (Tanya Glavatskix) (1991, Kyiv, Ukraine) is an interdisciplinary artist now based between London and Kyiv. She works with digital graphics, print, media installation, painting, sculpture and performance. She’s a recipient of the University of the Arts London International Postgraduate Scholarship and is a recent Chelsea College of Arts graduate with Distinction. Her works are shown in private collections in China, the Netherlands, Russia, Ukraine, the United Kingdom and the USA.

DIANA BERG (1979, Mariupol, Ukraine) is a Ukrainian public figure, founder of the Mariupol TU platform – the center of social changes and promotion of human rights and freedoms through arts and culture; organizer of the Donetsk is Ukraine movement and a designer. She studies as Graphic design specialist at IT Academy “Step”, Donetsk.

ABOUT THE CURATOR

ANNA NESTERENKO (1998, Yevpatoria, Ukraine) is a curator and art manager, originally from Ukraine and currently based in London. She finished BA Arts and Culture at Erasmus University Rotterdam in 2019 and MA Curating and Collections at Chelsea College of Arts, UAL, London in 2021. Curated various exhibitions in the Netherlands, Ukraine, Russia, Italy and the UK. Anna specialises in Eastern European and Asian contemporary and activist art.

OPEN WEEKEND at the Station

7th May 22 -> 8th May 22

10am-6pm

Station

Event