“The universe of two”

Candles on the windowsills, a moment of silence in honor of Heavenly Hundred, a touching melody of wheel lira: such was the ambience at the opening ceremony of the “Universe of two,” an exhibition of Kateryna and Volodymyr Nemyra, Leopolitan artists. The display features small scale sculptures by Kateryna and paintings by Volodymyr.

“Every Ukrainian keeps a spark of goodness and light in their soul,” said Valentyna Bochkovska, director of the museum. The exhibition’s subtitle “40 years afterwards” is a tribute to the Lviv National Academy of Fine Arts, the artists’ alma mater. Nowadays, their artwork is present in the collections of many museums in Ukraine and abroad – as they were living in USA for 16 years. Unfortunately, Volodymyr Nemyra was absent at the ceremony due to health issues, but his paintings filled the premise with radiance and warmth.

“The art endures any troubled times. This artistic couple has always been a kind of energy focus; their art resonates so well with each other. Their artwork is imbued with treasure, each of them has something of their own to show – it is a wonderful example of how you can create beautiful things at any time. It only proves that our culture is eternal, it will not perish, it will only inspire,” says Olena Fedorova, the exhibition’s curator. Upon examining Kateryna’s artwork more closely, one can see that it goes beyond the simple decorative ceramics, the genre she follows most often. These works preserve the touch of the artist’s soul. There are reflections on ancient Ukrainian sculpture, Sarmatian and Scythian periods – but expressed in the contemporary artistic language, in a way in which we can see the echoes of Western sculpture. The artist employs the play of light and shape, follows the tradition of decorative sculpture that were always present in the Leopolitan school of decorative arts. Thematic arrangements, such as Mermaids, A Talk About Love, A Young Woman, Totem, and others fascinate with its deep imagery, harmonious shapes, and subtle use of the material.

Volodymyr’s art is also pleasing to the eye. The sophisticated color palette and refined composition witness the artist’s mastery of Avant-garde and Postmodern concepts. Architectural landscape is the favorite genre of Volodymyr Nemyra. The scenes, nearly the third of which are from Lviv, are immersed into a timeless extra dimension, filled with cultural codes and new interpretations – but nevertheless recognizable. Metropolitan Andrei Sheptytsky, Lesia, The Cossacks Before the Battle, and others have long been acknowledged as a national artistic heritage.

In the 1990s the artists moved to the US. They had opened the gallery and studio in Cleveland, organized and supported a school of Ukrainian studies; in the early 2010s they returned home and have been living in Ukraine since then.

The exhibition also presents two books by Kateryna Nemyra – the novella Sometimes and the collection of short stories Colored Stories. Her debut in literature took place back in the 1990s, in the periodic press, but the separate books came out in 2013 and 2014. The topics of Kateryna’s stories are associated with the fates of various women against the backdrop of recent and contemporary Ukrainian events.

The exhibition in the Museum of Book and Printing of Ukraine will be open through March 20