Looking for a good gift? Come here...

The exhibits include decorative plates, embroideries, patchworks, and felt toys. By the way, the SCM corporation holds this exhibition, called “Authentically Ukrainian Gifts,” for the second time, and the current event focuses on ceramic plates, while last year’s one was devoted mostly to promoting works of artisan glass makers, who make their products directly at the glass furnace, by hand, while glass is still hot, and use appropriate techniques.

According to the company’s director of public relations and communications Natalia Yemchenko, they selected the exhibits competitively following the contest involving 276 artists from all regions of Ukraine! The best pieces participated in the exhibition which aims, first of all, to change Ukrainians’ attitudes when shopping for gifts and attract the public’s attention to works by local artists. “Ukraine is rich in talented artists and we call on everyone to buy and give to each other Ukrainian works,” Yemchenko stated. “Our compatriots create globally competitive art, and we, the Ukrainian people, are ready to buy our own, Ukrainian gifts!” One of the project participants, artist Olesia Dvorak-Halyk shared the director’s optimism: “Our dream is to see pottery becoming fashionable to buy and give.”

THE AUTHENTICALLY UKRAINIAN GIFTS EXHIBITION FOCUSES ON CERAMIC PLATES (PICTURED: WORKS BY INNA HURZHII)

The plates on display are almost too fine to be listed as decorative and applied arts pieces. Most artists treat their shape as a reflection of solar disk and fill them with appropriate symbols. This motif appears most clearly in the works by Serhii Kozak, featuring rays that diverge in all directions. Here, the rays are exactly like they are commonly drawn by children; there, they are bent at the ends in a whirlwind of time racing clockwise, or rolled in a fiery spiral. Lesia Ros works wonders with little spirals that have collapsed in a circle and look like a snail shell. One can look at her extremely meticulously designed works for hours, seeing her abstract patterns now as sail ships floating on the waves, and then as female silhouettes.

Meanwhile, Oleh Reznikov achieves no less expressive effect by plunging deeper, in the nucleus of the cell. His pulsating works resemble living cells of the human body under the microscope, with the whole universe dancing inside every cell. Iryna Marko has woven adorable animals, flowers, and fruits using many-legged amoebas as elements in her ceramic works. One of them depicts a tree that looks like a hourglass when seen together with its root system, while its palmate seeds flow into the crown, turning into colorful flowers there.

ALL VISITORS WERE WELCOME TO A MASTER CLASS IN PAINTING

Yaroslav and Natalia Boretskys’ works, created in a post-avant-garde style, stand out markedly. These masters see painting plates as an art equaling... music, and rhythm is the leitmotiv in their works. On closer look, one immediately notices the static lines beginning to move, now rushing to the center, and then flying off outside the plate’s rim.

Surprisingly, only a fraction of these artists began their career at art academies. Some exhibits are works by those who started doing decorative arts only recently, having decisively severed ties with stable but unloved jobs, and have reached a great progress in just a few years, such as Zhanna Rossypchuk. Some artists again are strong enough to combine business and art, such as Kateryna Svyrydova who sews fantastic animals from felt pieces.

The organizers summarized the purpose of the exhibition thus: nowadays, Ukrainians need little success stories. The exhibition will run until December 3.