Traditions and innovations

The exhibition halls of the National League of Ukrainian Artists (NLUA) host the 7th All-Ukrainian Triennial of Sculpture till June 25. According to organizers, this large-scale artistic event present such projects as triennials of graphics and painting, which involve the best artists who represent art schools in various regions of this country, while visitors have an opportunity to see the current trends in contemporary figurative art, the NLUA exhibit directorate’s press service announced.

The triennial of sculpture presents the latest achievements of both the well-known luminaries of Ukrainian sculpture and those who are only beginning to follow the thorny path of a professional sculptor. The event will include meetings between older-generation masters and students of art-related higher educational institutions.

This art project harmonically combines traditions and innovations. The triennial displays a diversity of creative ideas and currents, figurative and compositional solutions, a wide circle of themes, a large number and sometimes an unexpected combination of materials. It does not matter much whether a master upholds traditions of the classical school or searches for new figurative and plastic techniques because the main criterion for participating in the triennial is the talent and professional skills of artists, thanks to which the world of sculpture appears to be brilliant, gripping, multifaceted, complicated, and, hence, still more interesting for ordinary spectators and experts.

The same expositional space presents original works of sculptors. As the triennial organizers emphasize, artists implement their artistic findings and ideas, showing uncommon thinking, a high degree of artistic generalization, a bright individual vision, and the ability to reveal the decorative and plastic properties of any material as best as they can, and resort, if necessary, to experiments.

Those who are displaying their works in the “Sculpture 2017” culture and art project are such well-known masters as Kyivites Yurii Bahalika, Mykola Bilyk, Natalia Derehus, Borys Dovhan, Oleksandr Diachenko, Alisa Zaboi, Viktor Konoval, Viktor Lypovka, and Oleksandra Ruban, as well as winners of the past triennials: Volodymyr Protas, Vasyl Korchovyi, Volodymyr Kochmar, Kostiantyn Synytskyi (Kyiv); Valerii Pyrohov, Felix Betliiemskyi, and Serhii Sbitniev (Kharkiv); Oleksandr Koval, Oleh Novaiev, and Yurii Silberberg (Odesa); Bohdan Korzh (Uzhhorod), and Viacheslav Hutyria (Horlivka).

Among the young participants are Petro Hronskyi, Yehor and Mykyta Zihura, Oleksii Zolotariov, and Hanna Kyseliova (Kyiv), Andrii Akhtyrskyi (Odesa), and others.

The exposition comprises about 200 sculptures – from miniature medals and plaquettes to monumental images.

Incidentally, the experience of holding triennials testifies to a great potential of art initiatives in particular and contemporary Ukrainian sculpture in general.