Glimmering Connections. Ukrainian Painting at the Turn of the 1990s and Today (Curatorial Text)

In contemporary art, there is a noticeable return to painting. After a long period dominated by installation, performance, photography, and video, painting is once again establishing itself as a relevant artistic medium. Form, materiality, and the artist’s gesture are regaining importance. At the same time, the concept has not disappeared; instead, it is expressed within the form itself. This resurgence is no longer an isolated phenomenon but a clear trend, particularly linked to fatigue from digital oversaturation—endless screens and flickering images with simulated physicality.

The exhibition features works by Ukrainian artists from two periods: the second half of the 1980s through the first half of the 1990s, and the last decade. In both eras, painting has developed amid historical upheaval and turmoil.

Neo-Expressionism, which dominated the first of these periods, coincided with the broader postmodernist movement, the collapse of the Soviet empire, and the emergence of independent Ukraine. It was a time of liberation from ideological constraints, a search for a new language, interest in myth, experimentation, and intuitive expression. The works from this era are filled with a sense of transition and anticipation of new horizons.

The spirit of painting in the current phase has emerged amid external aggression, loss, restrictions, and upheaval. Initially, this painting responded to events following the Maidan, the occupation of Crimea and parts of the Luhansk and Donetsk oblasts; later, to the pandemic; and today, to full-scale war and its consequences.

There is no clear boundary between these two periods in the exhibition. Each room has its own thematic or stylistic rhythm. Main themes include myth and apocrypha, landscape and the human figure, allusion, bodily transformations, genre hybridity, and painting as a means of self-inquiry.

The exhibition is structured as a space for dialogue between different generations and temporal experiences. It is not merely about the present’s engagement with the past, but also about a mutual influence in which each era sheds new light on the other while rethinking itself. These are complex relationships in which time loses its linearity.

Artists of different generations respond to the challenges of their time in their own ways—through form, color, subject matter, or working methods. Yet unexpected connections also emerge between them. These are like sudden flashes, manifesting in certain similarities—the speed and energy of the painterly gesture, figurativeness, heightened emotional sensitivity, and an understanding of painting as a process rather than a finished result—as well as in significant differences that highlight the rupture between generations. These connections are fleeting and transient. Sometimes they are clearly visible; at other times, they remain mere conjecture. Nevertheless, there is an undeniable resonance and echo between approaches, works, gestures, and artists. These are ephemeral connections.

The exhibition does not seek to bridge these gaps or permanently establish similarities, but rather to reveal them and create a space for broader discussion.

Curator: Oleksandr Soloviov
Co-curator: Ihor Oksametnyi

The exhibition is open from June 25 to August 30, 2026
Working hours: Wednesday–Sunday, 12:00 PM–8:00 PM (ticket office closes at 7:30 PM)
On opening day, June 25, the exhibition will be open from 6:30 PM to 9:00 PM

The exhibition is supported within the MUSEUM FUTURES program, implemented by Mystetskyi Arsenal and Mystetskyi Arsenal Community, NGO, and made possible by RIBBON International.

❗ 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 start working after the end of an air raid alert.