“He is one of those warriors who are defending Ukraine in this information warfare”.

Volodymyr Viatrovych

    It’s hard to find a Ukrainian today who hasn’t seen or reposted posters like “Russian ship…”, “Joy”, “Volunteers”, “Will”, “Air Defense” in public spaces or on social media. This is a tiny part of the work of one of Ukraine’s leading poster artists, Nikita Titov.

    Each of us has been observing the artist’s work in the urban space for more than a year now – billboards and city lights “4.5.0.”, three numbers that have become clear to everyone with the threat of war. Thus, Nikita Titov entered our consciousness with his works before the full-scale invasion and, through joint reflections, remains in it today. The artist is firmly convinced that art is a full-fledged participant in the information war, and therefore speaks with the frankness of a true citizen with each of his posters: “For the last eight years, it has been extremely difficult and, in fact, very strange to stay away from the events that are happening in and around Ukraine. Every sane person should support their country and their army,” the artist is convinced.

And he supports us every day. After all, his works with the professional laconicism of a poster style express everything that fills every Ukrainian soul. Thanks to his fruitful work, charity events and powerful volunteer collections are organized to help our defenders from the Armed Forces.

    The artist speaks frankly about the long and winding path of self-identification both professionally and personally. Today, Nikita Titov knows for sure that he is a Ukrainian who, together with other stalwart citizens of Ukraine, is writing a new history of the country through his art.

    The exhibition “Day-to-day” is the artist’s first exhibition in 2023 and his first exhibition at the Khmelnytskyi Regional Art Museum. It is dedicated to the anniversary of our everyday life – the new historical reality in which we woke up on February 24 and in which we continue to live and fight today. For a year now, artist and citizen Nikita Titov has been documenting the recent history of our independent state, which is being watched by the whole world. He celebrates the spirit of the courageous and invincible Ukrainian people and is inspired by it. And, like each of us, he brings our Victory closer.

Special guests of the opening – the band “Chumatskyi Shlyakh”

  Nikita Titov was born on July 2, 1973, in the small mining town of Jõhvi in northeastern Estonia, where his mother is from. His father is a Ukrainian from Chuhuiv, Kharkiv region. When he was a teenager, Nikita moved with his parents to Kharkiv. After school, he entered the Art and Graphic Department of the Kharkiv Pedagogical Institute. After graduation, he took up painting and joined the youth branch of the Kharkiv Union of Artists. At the same time, he became allergic to oil paints.

    In 2002, he moved to Kyiv in search of work. He worked as an illustrator and art director at the international advertising agency Bates Ukraine. In 2014, due to personal circumstances, he returned to his parents in Kharkiv. Since August 2018, he has been working as an artist at the Kharkiv Literary Museum.

  The artist created his first poster on December 9, 2013, and dedicated it to the birth of the Ukrainian nation.

The artist’s oeuvre includes the design of theater projects. The first among them was the theatrical charity art project “Oscar and the Pink Lady” with Irma Vitovska, which still raises funds for the treatment of children with cancer. He is also the artist of the play about the war in Donbas, Dudes Don’t Celebrate, or Ukrainian, by the Ampoule Independent Theater, which premiered in December 2020.

    In the summer of 2020, the Kharkiv Literary Museum hosted the Kazavmazav project, a kind of artistic duel between artist Nikita Titov and poet Ivan Senin. This is a joint creative project in which the artists’ poems and drawings resonate with each other.

    Titov’s poster “The Frontline,” which depicts a soldier and a medic, became a sketch of a postage stamp that was put into circulation on June 1, 2020. On October 12, 2020, the National Bank of Ukraine put into circulation a commemorative coin of Ukraine “Peredova” with a face value of 5 hryvnias. The coin was created using images from the poster of the same name. The coin won the 2020 Best Coin of the Year of Ukraine contest in the Best Theme Disclosure category.

Nikita Titov has been living in Ivano-Frankivsk since 2022.