This Friday, January 26, at 17:00, we invite you to the opening of Stas Zhalobniuk’s solo exhibition “Radiation”. In this large-scale project, which we are presenting together with the Odesa National Art Museum, art appears as a weapon of mass destruction against human forgetfulness and indifference. The artist, who was born and raised in Odesa, feels these flaws on a subconscious level. Despite the fact that the city is under constant targeted shelling by the Russians, many of its residents still radiate many narratives imposed by the Soviet government. The artist reflects on this dichotomy in his series “Black Sea”, “Posthumous Masks of Pushkin”, and “Potentially (Un)Acceptable Content”. In the series “Radiation” the artist reflects on the change in the optics of previously banal things that we are now deprived of because of the occupiers.
The main theme in Stas Zhalobniuk’s painting is the road. Despite his constant self-improvement and work on various series, he has been appealing to it for more than ten years in a row. The main characters of these paintings are trucks, which in recent years have become almost the only source of transportation of the most necessary goods for life. The interventions in this extended series are several still lifes with simple food, which symbolize the complexity of life and the small joys of truckers (let’s recall the recent strikes on the border with Poland, when thousands of Ukrainian drivers were blocked).
In addition to paintings, the exhibition is filled with art books and objects that we hope will not leave visitors indifferent.
Also, for the first time, the viewers will be able to see the series “My Grandfather Sava’s Garden, 1947”, in which the artist explores the tragic pages of Ukrainian history through the prism of the suffering of his ancestors. Most of the works were created after the start of the full-scale Russian invasion.
We warn that some works contain sensitive content.