When clay speaks

Hrudzynska has been awarded the title of Honored Artist of Ukraine and is a member of the National Union of Artists of Ukraine. She authored many ceramic pieces that adorn Ukrainian cities, interiors of homes, and museum exhibitions. The master’s portfolio includes decorative panels in underground and surface lobbies of Khreshchatyk subway station which have become a symbol and trademark not only of the Kyiv Subway, but the Ukrainian capital in general, too.

Hrudzynska started working at the Experimental Artistic Ceramics Workshop of the Academy of Construction and Architecture of the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic’s Institute of Architecture in 1947. Prominent artist and ceramics technologist Nina Fedorova led the workshop for 40 years, while Hrudzynska’s own 20-year-long period of inspired work there saw her creating a variety of panels, architectural ceramic inserts, decorative plates and platters, vases, kumantsi (tire-shaped decanters), etc. She did highly original compositions illustrating folklore and literary subjects (piece She Reaped the Wheat in Serfdom’s Labor, decorative plates Cossack Mamai, Dance, Hey, White Stone on the Hill and many others).

Hrudzynska taught painting at the Ceramics Department of the Boichuk Decorative Arts and Design Institute from 1990 to 2010, sharing her extensive experience with young ceramists.

The National Ukrainian Folk Decorative Art Museum houses over 100 works by the artist currently, including a study for the Khreshchatyk subway station ceramic mural. The exhibition includes works reflecting different facets of the prominent master’s talent. The event’s organizers told The Day that Hrudzynska’s poetic and beautiful style was rooted in Ukrainian folk art.

The exhibition will run until August 12.