Emotional Gift Shop
Women’s Shop is not where you can buy perfumes, even less so a boutique. It is the title of an unusual exhibit uniting four noted Kyiv women artists Iryna Lesynska, Svitlana Karunska, Larysa Pisha, and Oleksandra Zhumailova. The exposition is hosted by the Art Salon of the Ukrainian Art Relief Fund in Podil. It also unites different genres: painting, sculpture, art photography, and mixed techniques. Put together, they form a solid amphitheater of impressions and emotions. The high walls of the gallery offer sizable canvases with smaller ones arranged at eye level. Within easy reach are the sculptures. And the viewers are in the arena, of course. The struggle of impressions is deep inside, fought quietly and without shedding blood, as befits a place like this one. I believe, however, that anyone stepping inside immediately and willingly surrenders to the charming atmosphere.
Iryna Lesynska, by fixing whimsical patterns of light on her films, tries to investigate secrets of nature. Subtle nuances are brought into focus and familiar objects begin playing a new game with your consciousness. Roses. What could be there that you don’t know yet? A great deal, says the artist. Look at her Roses. An expressive epic picture, tender velvet with a shade of green, it immediately arrests your attention, making you stop in your tracks at a real feast of beauty. The hall’s composition is balanced by the Leaf on the opposite wall, a sole sad witness to the ephemeral triumph of nature. Maybe still alive, but already fallen and yellow, fading on a dead and wet stone. No coming back, except that everything will be brought back to life when the time comes... Larysa Pisha selected a series of canvases with animals for the exposition. The author’s poetic nature bestows these creatures with tender human eyes and supreme emotions. “For me love is a kind of dance I borrow from centuries back and give to the winds as a present...” Her pictures are so very easy to understand. An elephant pouring water over himself under the scorching sun (Heat), a hippo posing in front of a mirror (I’m Really Handsome), a funny frog (A Frog and an Orchid), and a trap (How Marabous are Caught)...
Svitlana Karunska conveys her message through sculpturing, thoroughly lyrical and kept in the chamber style. The fragile Quixotic Hero (bronze, stone), the relict shellfish from which a woman struggles to crawl out, born not of foam but in a rigidly fixed space (Fantasia-III). A Play for a Hero brings us into the atmosphere of the theater with all the attributes: a mask, a book, a pair of ballet shoes, and an amphora on a miniature shelf. And a silent guitar leaning against a wardrobe... Oleksandra Zhumailova-Dmytrovska specializes in female images. Her Princess of the Circus is strongly reminiscent of a modern top model who, together with her pony and a colorful parrot, is willing to entertain the audience. The serious Angel, with a subconsciously recognizable face, is untangling a cobweb of winds and prayers. Finally, A Dream Over the Water with its pacifying greenery and a beautiful young female body presents a harmony of flesh and nature.
