Hidden messages of Andrzej Ruta

Andrzej RUTA called his vernissage “X-Terra.” The exhibit presents 21 works created over the past two years. These are gessoes on wood and also acrylic and oil paintings.

Ruta was born near Kyiv in 1972. His father, also a painter, was fond of travelling, so the future artist spent his childhood in Hungary and Armenia. Ruta’s formation as a personality took place in Ivano-Frankivsk. There he finished school and received art education at the Carpathian University. An important event for the young artist was a biennale in Ivano-Frankivsk in 1989.

Several years ago, Ruta moved to Kyiv. Today his works are included in private collections in Ukraine, Russia, Poland, the Czech Republic, Lithuania, Germany, Spain, Canada and the US. For a long time, the artist was studying photography, creating decorations for the Pearls of the Season Festival, and painting was his only hobby. Ruta returned to it only when he felt a creative “vacuum,” and the circle of admirers which consisted of friends became too small. The artist defines the style of his works as “subjective impressionism,” but his new works do not fit into any definition.

“My latest works are encoded. It’s much more interesting to present information in a way that makes a person strain a little and work mentally,” the artist says. In July, Ruta had a personal exhibition at the Kyiv gallery “36”, dedicated to the pre-Christian period in Ukraine. Some works from there, such as Labyrinths of temptations (gesso), were included in the exhibition at the Museum of Modern Art. The themes of works, represented at the today exhibition, range from antiquity to the modern era. The latest of them (The Last Day of the Bull, Psychedelic Pipe) are filled with hidden messages. The artist explains him choosing such name for the exposition: “I want to recreate ‘a fragment of the Unknown Earth’ where my torn off navel string was left, X-Terra is a land on which I am searching the way to heaven.”

The works will be exhibited until August 28. The exhibitions in Poland and Austria are in Ruta’s nearest plans. The artist also plans to participate in an art festival held by the Museum of Modern Art of Ukraine.