“From Battle to Canvas” is a series of exhibitions built around a unified concept that unfolds in three stages of creative and emotional transformation: from the personal artistic experience of soldiers and veterans to the creation of a collective canvas that becomes a symbol of memory, strength, and community unity. The project’s uniqueness lies in the synergy of art, psychology, and the lived experience of each participant. It is developed collaboratively by psychologists, artists, volunteers, and art historians.
War leaves deep psychological wounds not only in soldiers but also in their families and the broader community. People need a safe space to collectively process traumatic experiences. Art therapy offers a way to express the pain of loss and find a path toward healing through creativity. “From Battle to Canvas” introduces a new format for socio-cultural engagement with profound public impact.
The exhibitions will be accompanied by music, art therapy sessions, workshops, and personal stories from participants, creating a vibrant artistic environment. Visitors are invited to feel and understand contemporary events through art that heals and unites.
Vitalii Ruppelt (b. 1991, Rivne, known as Appex) is a muralist, electronic musician, rapper, painter, graphic artist, and a soldier who took up arms to defend his homeland. He is an active participant in artistic initiatives, exhibitions, and festivals, with work recognized both in Ukraine and abroad. His music can be heard in the video game Stalker 2.
His series of graphic and oil paintings titled “The Fourth Dimension” explores timeless spaces and the deep structures of reality. The boundary between the imagined and the visible dissolves, opening new perspectives of perception and immersing the viewer in a world where visual form and music intertwine.
Ruppelt’s works are reflections on the experiences of contemporary individuals—their inner struggles with fear, the illusion of stability, and attempts to cope with chaos, as well as the conflict between reality and imagination. He seeks to explore the inner world and psychology of modern humans, who constantly face challenges of varying intensity. He contemplates concepts such as the “bombardment” of identity and searches for answers to the question: what is identity?
This internal struggle, doubt, anxiety, and emotional turmoil are visualized through surreal, grotesque imagery that seems to corrode the human figure from within. Each painting is accompanied by the artist’s own explanation of its narrative. Ruppelt’s canvases reveal the influence of surrealism, characterized by subconscious imagery, liberation from rational thought, optical illusions, and paradoxical combinations of form.
