The subway attracts residents of large cities with its undeniable urban functionality – the ability to transport people over long distances, compressing time. The subway turned out to be a universal space for the development of ingenious (but not fictional) plots of Yevhen Klymenko’s works – Shakespeare’s, Fellini’s, Marvel’s.

“The project is focused on the aesthetics of places such as the subway and underpasses. The special mood conveyed by the colors of these places is quite brutal and in a way poster. Many advertising media – banners, posters, ads, graffiti, signs – shows us a society immersed in the consumption of the rich aesthetics of street culture. The series is dedicated to the beauty of the ugly. ” (www.evgenklimenko.com Yevhen Klymenko).

The subway is the growling belly of a giant whale city, the parallel world of meticulously parallel rails, the alter ego of our almost fake reality. However, there is a surprisingly real life. People remain human, sometimes allowing the human being to prevail over social conventions: emotions, feelings, psychological states, going down the escalator into the ground with their owners, acquire a special embodiment.

Yevhen Klymenko creates classically capacious, filled images. Each hand gesture, posture, look, outlined with sketchy ease and graphic conciseness, is followed by a personal story – life events of various scales and degrees of destiny. Mischievous and secret or subconscious and automatic process of “spying” on subway passengers gives insignificant plots a special flavor in the literal and figurative sense.

The theme of everyday travel in the subway is rapidly transformed by the artist into recognizable classic plots that are magically fascinating and do not let go for a long time. After all, who but the modern “Girl who reads a letter by the window” (1657) by Dutch painter Jan Vermeer is a girl who dreamily scrolls the social media timeline in her cell phone? Or is the woman with the child in her arms sitting on the bench of the carriage, not the canonically composed Virgin with a streamlined silhouette, typical of the images of Edward Munch, the Austrian classic of the Viennese Secession? The images created in the 21st century obviously resonate with characters from the canvases of the classics of European art of the 17th-20th centuries.

Artificial light sources and specific reflexes acquire a special narrative power due to the expressive painting surface with a laconic palette and academic compositional skill. Light outlines and draws certain characteristic details of objects and characters, superficially ignores and diverts the gaze from the insignificant. The usual “scenery” of the subway adds and emphasizes the conventionality and artificiality of the circumstances in which the characters found themselves.

The modern age of metamodernism, freeing art from obsessive stereotypes about obligatory innovation or trend, depriving the criterion of temporality and linear development of time, allows artists to freely choose style, manner, technique, appeal to any era and plot. One thing was and remains timeless – artistic talent. Thanks to the talented Yevhen Klymenko, you and I have the opportunity to instantly FIND OURSELVES IN THE SUBWAY and HEAR  the pulse-rhythm of his metal heart, INHALE a wave of burnt rubber and lubricants, FEEL the cold metallic air of drafts through open windows, LOOK into piercing eyes – headlights of concerned trains, TOUCH the life of a random stranger, as if to the sleeve of his coat, the silhouette of which is already disappearing up the escalator from your reality, just slipping into it for a moment.

Olena Mykhailovska, art critic, curator

Reference:

YEVHEN KLYMENKO

He was born on August 25, 1994 in the city of Dnipro. Lives and works in Kyiv.

Education: 2010-2014 – Dnipro Theater and Art College, easel painting. 2014-2015 – Kharkiv State Academy of Design and Arts, easel painting. 2015-2020 – National Academy of Fine Arts and Architecture, Kyiv, easel painting (teachers – V. Hurin, I. Melnychuk, M. Guida). Master’s thesis at NAOMA: “Spirit of Time” (2020, canvas, oil, 160×160, supervisor – M. Guida), theme – modern subway. Participant of exhibitions since 2012.

Awards and competitions: “Sicheslav Plein Air”, Dnipropetrovsk Art Museum, first prize; CODE project-competition, first and second prizes; graphics competition named after V. Zaretskyi, first prize; graphics competition named after O. Murashko , first prize; Silver medal of the Academy, NAOMA.

Exhibition “The Spirit of the Time. The Subway.” in our museum is the first personal exhibition of the artist.