By Kostiantyn DOROSHENKO, special to The Day
Since the days of perestroika Kyiv has had no reason to complain about
a shortage of art galleries. Even now more and more new exhibit halls open
with pompous presentations and crowded previews. Many of them, however,
soon begin to fight for survival, for they fail to find a face of their
own, their regular artists and audience, and sometimes even disappear altogether
from the capital's cultural landscape without any notable consequences.
Very few initiatives become successful and productive and only if they
proceed from extraordinary and professional personalities who are sure
of what then do and why. In the relatively short time of their existence,
it is sometimes hard to imagine how Kyiv made do without them. One such
highly organic Kyiv's exhibition areas is the Tazio Gallery situated on
Andriyivsky uzviz, which has recently marked two years of activity.
In only two years, Tazio has hosted forty personal and combined exhibitions
of Ukrainian and foreign artists, let alone concerts, presentations, costume
balls, and other esthetic amusements. Opening days at Tazio invariably
draw the attention of the experienced representatives of the diplomatic
corps and finally of Ukrainian business people who have become so fastidious
about their leisure.
The gallery's originality and fine style is ensured by the fact that
it is managed by a professional art scholar, one of the most energetic
and prominent ladies of the Ukrainian art world, Olena Yahodovska. Together
with her always impeccably neat companion Yevhen Kuziakin, she has presented
regular artists, visitors and gallery friends the Black Coffee exhibition
on the occasion of the anniversary, combining the works of 19 artists in
one show.
For two festive days, the gallery was packed with guests eager to welcome
the celebrants. Those invited seemed to compete in originality, presenting
the hostess with the most varied gifts and flowers - from tender tea roses
to exotic cactuses. Interestingly, employees of the US Embassy in Ukraine
were the first to officially greet the gallery. In general, the geography
of the audience gathered for the feast was extremely wide: from Lviv and
Dnipropetrovsk to America and Israel.
Refreshments also matched the audience and the exhibition's concept
and general spirit: white vintage wines, champagne, brandy, cognac, endless
chocolates, cakes and, of course, black coffee.






