Greater than 100 artists, manufacturers and corporations from Ukraine have arrange store within the Skylight at Essex Crossing on New York Metropolis’s Decrease East Aspect for the inaugural I Am U Are Ukrainian Creators Honest (till 26 March). Co-founded by Anna Pagava, the chief government of the Los Angeles-based public relations company Gogola, and Kristina Skripka, a hospitality professional, the occasion goals to indicate that Ukrainian “tradition, expertise, artwork and design have all the time been progressive and various”, the organisers say, whereas convincing folks that the nation is “not an issue however an answer”.
The organisers additionally need to ship a message of defiance, claiming that “the battle has given much more agility and resilience to Ukrainian artistic expertise that the world can study and profit from”.
Masha Reva and Ivan Grabko, a painter couple based mostly in Kyiv who fled the town following Russia’s invasion, are the truthful’s artistic administrators. They’ve organised two exhibitions in collaboration with the Ukrainian Museum of New York. Reva deliberate a present of Ukrainian photographers whose work portrays “a poetic, robust, and collective portrait of younger Ukraine”, and Grabko requested a number of artists to create works in response to the immediate, “How are you?”
A conventional Ukrainian wreath by Olena Mityurina Photograph © Andrew Gray
“The artists are additionally asking the viewer the identical query,” Grabko tells The Artwork Newspaper. “It’s a quite simple query requested by individuals after they meet, a dialog opener began by mates or individuals who don’t know one another. Typically it is unnecessary however generally it means rather more than merely being well mannered.”
However behind the mushy themes, the truth for the truthful’s members is sort of grim generally; after the occasion, the bulk will return to a war-ravaged nation with no finish to the combating in sight. “Sadly, the battle is crucial factor occurring in Ukraine proper now, however individuals are persevering with to stay their lives and do their work as they did earlier than,” Grabko says. “We need to present that the battle is one thing we’ll win, our defenders aren’t combating for battle however for victory and life. Individuals have to see that this battle shouldn’t be in useless.”
Sculpture by Gorn Ceramics © Gorn Ceramics
Offering alternatives for Ukraine’s artistic industries to community and forge ties with US businesspeople is a crucial facet of I Am U Are. The truthful has partnered with United 24, an official fundraising platform launched by Ukrainian president Oleksandr Zelensky’s administration, and a few of the occasion’s earnings will go to humanitarian help in Ukraine.
“To be trustworthy, all of us wanted a giant challenge to give attention to and mix our powers for a superb trigger,” Reva says. “All elements of Ukrainian tradition are equally essential, from the rave scene and museum artefacts to tech startups and craft methods inherited from our ancestors. This range makes Ukrainians who we’re.”
I Am U Are Ukrainian Creators Honest, till 26 March, Skylight at Essex Crossing, New York
