Karina Synytsia’s New Exhibition at the Mala Gallery
On Thursday, September 17, at 12:00 p.m., Karina Synytsia’s solo exhibition Discovery! opens at the Mala Gallery of the Mystetskyi Arsenal.
Karina Synytsia’s project revolves around the moment of a chance encounter with something ancient, a fossilized shell or a trace in stone, when you suddenly realize that there is something far greater than yourself. For the artist, children are the main protagonists of these encounters: curious and thirsty for knowledge, they transform any place, whether the neighborhood of Troyeshchyna or the historical Kudryavka, into a space for play and discovery, recalling the story of Mary Anning, a self-taught child who became an outstanding paleontologist.
The project also has a contemporary dimension:
“Today, valuable scientific discoveries are often made by Ukrainian soldiers. Military fortification*, a purely wartime undertaking, nonetheless places soldiers on the same level as an archaeological stratum, right alongside objects destined for museum archives: ancient amphorae and Trypillian pottery. There, deep within the layers of soil, they are brought flush against the fragility of someone else’s past and their own present.”
— Curator Anna Tasheva.
CURATORIAL TEXT
In her work, Karina also draws on images of Soviet monumental sculptures, including Ernest Kotkov’s Vodohrai, Thumbelina by an unknown artist, and others. Some of these sculptures have already been destroyed.
“Visually, these sculptures remind me of landscapes from the past: their waves and pearls seem to evoke ancient times with their form, when animals lived, before mass extinctions, somewhere between the seas and the cliffs,”
— says artist Karina Synytsia.
At the exhibition, you’ll see Fossils, a project which consists of paintings created in 2024–2025.
Anna Tasheva is a curator and cultural manager. Born in Kyiv, she considers both Kyiv and the Odesa region, where her family comes from, her home. Her practice combines work with exhibition formats, texts, and public events. Her main interests lie in Ukrainian queer art, the intersection of art and activism, the stigmatized and the marginalized.
Karina Synytsia is an artist from Siverskodonetsk, Luhansk Oblast, who currently lives and works in Kyiv. She works primarily in painting, with a particular focus on monumental techniques, especially mural painting. Her works depict architectural structures and constructions, as well as landscapes, emphasizing the emptiness, desolation, and decay of these spaces and objects. However, the architectural elements themselves become backdrops to cityscapes in her work. Meanwhile, at the heart of her works, the expression of human feelings, emotional states, and social aspects of life occupies a thematically and figuratively significant place.
Curator and Project Manager: Anna Tasheva
Public Communications: Anna Zurova, Oksana Matsiuk, Olha Dudenko, Mariia Karina
Graphic Design: Valeriia Guievska
Translation: Burshtyna Tereshchenko
Technical Coordination: Serhii Diptan, Rima Abdalla
Installation team: Oleh Hashynov, Vitalii Hrushko, Ihor Trotsenko, Vitalii Ternovyi
The exhibition Discovery! will last until 17 October 2026
On the opening day, the exhibition will be open from 12:00 to 20:00
Address: Mala Gallery of Mystetskyi Arsenal, 28 Ivan Mazepa Street, Kyiv
Opening hours: Wednesday–Sunday, 12:00–20:00
Free admission
Please plan your visit to the gallery with the security situation in the capital in mind. We ask visitors avoid large crowds on opening day.
❗We care about everyone’s safety, so in case of an air raid alert, the exhibition will be closed. At this time, you can go to the nearest shelter. The exhibition will resume after the end of an air raid alert.