Dot, line, possibilities – Exhibitions

Art gives us a view on the world that we do not expect.
It surprises us, moves us, makes us think.
Art emancipates, it often stands by those who need it the most, giving voice and empowering minorities. It brings to mind stories that might be forgotten.
Dot, Line, Possibilities is exactly about that.
It brings stories of people who, through art, learned to express themselves. This exhibition has grown out of inspiration and courage of a new group of artists who had no public voice before. People who have found friendship, adventure and much needed ways of communication.
Since 2016, the PinchukArtCentre has been inviting artists with special developmental needs (autism, Down syndrome, mental retardation) to join the "Workshop of Possibilities". There, in collaboration with Katya Buchatska, David Chichkan, Nikita Kadan and Anna Scherbyna, a four-year-long creative journey began.
"Dot, Line, Possibilities" shares stories of those people. Some of them, several years ago, could not touch a blank sheet of paper. Then, giving it time, a dot appeared on that same sheet. And from that dot, lines, color, form and figuration grew. It grew with them, their confidence and their belief in what they can make become possible.
Artists presented at the exhibition: Anastasia Averina, Heorhii Alaverdov, Yelizaveta Bukina, Katya Buchatska, Bohdan Horda, Maria Vykhrova, Mark Volkov, Olha Zholobetska, Nazar Yonenko, Nikita Kadan, Anastasia Kravchuk, Daryna Malyuk, Yevhenia Mysik, Petro Mikhaylov, Oleksii Ovdienko, Artem Oliynyk, Oleksandr Pylypenko, Kyrylo Smereka, Pavlo Khomenko, Artem Tsarenko, Varvara Shyshlova and Anna Scherbyna.
Curators of the exhibition: Olga Shyshlova, Head of the Educational Department of the PinchukArtCentre, and Katya Вuchatska, artist.

Katya Вuchatska

artist and the curator of the exhibition

"The only thing I knew when I came to the "Workshop of Possibilities" was that I was not there to teach. Over the 4 years spent together, it has become clear who tends for what, what colour he or she chooses and what themes he or she covers. In parallel, at every session, I witness artistic solutions that impress me. We, artists of academic background, can only dream about such a frank attitude to the act of drawing"

The exhibition is an opportunity to discover the outsider art. Unconventional artistic solutions, singularity and an entirely different perspective on ordinary things incite the viewers to re-conceptualise the commonly accepted notions of the words 'artist' and 'art'.

"Outsider art has become an important part of contemporary culture since the 1970s. Works by artists of that category are found in collections of largest contemporary art museums, those are included in landmark international shows, this genre has its own market, work of outsiders is an object for explorations, and books about it are published"

Olga Shyshlova

Head of the Educational Department of the PinchukArtCentre and the curator of the exhibition

Presenting work of twenty two artists who moved from imagination to reality.
Twenty two artists who explore their personalities and their limitations.
Twenty two times an invitation to join them in their stories.
Story worth sharing.

Anastasia Averina

1981, Kyiv

Graphic elements prevail in Averina's artistic practice. Her minimalistic compositions represent everyday life scenes. Averina's work shows beauty of the routine that she experiences again in the creative process.
Has been attending the "Workshop of Possibilities" since 2018.

Heorhii Alaverdov

2000, Kyiv

Alaverdov gives no preference to a colour or to a linear structure in a work, because he uses those means with equal confidence. In his work, he relies on real events: memories about those or photographic documentation. When diving into the creative process, Alaverdov is not distracted by external irritants: his figurations are worked through down to tiniest details, and nothing would hide from his attentive eyes.
Has been attending the "Workshop of Possibilities" since 2016.

Yelizaveta Bukina

2005, Kyiv

Bukina's artistic practice is guided exclusively by her emotional condition. By figuring her strongest impressions on paper, the artist experiences those again. Every of her few works is an accomplished presentation.

Has been attending the "Workshop of Possibilities" since 2016.

Katya Buchatska

1987, Kyiv

Buchatska's artistic practice is focused on constructing alternative realities both in the past and in the future. In her work, the author problematises the image in a piece of art and experiments with different modes of viewer's perception.
Has been attending the "Workshop of Possibilities" since 2016.

Bohdan Horda

2008, Kyiv

Horda's artistic practice is mainly based on graphic elements that build up his own symbolic language.
Has been attending the "Workshop of Possibilities" since 2019.

Maria Vykhrova

1991, Kyiv

Vykhrova has a fine feeling of the colour, and to translate it in the best emotional way, she uses water colours. By generalising the shapes of surrounding objects, she brings those to the edge of abstraction.
Has been attending the "Workshop of Possibilities" since 2017.

Mark Volkov

2004, Kyiv

In his artistic practice, Volkov gives preference to gouache, pastel and large formats. His artistic language is built upon colour. The artist is layering it, paying attention to his body's moves. Taken by the creative process, he goes beyond the plane of painting, which makes the work three-dimensional and inconceivable.
Has been attending the "Workshop of Possibilities" since 2016.

Olha Zholobetska

1998, Kyiv

Zholobetska's artistic practice embraces numerous series – graphic works and painting where she experiments with colour and its form. The show features the artist's graphic works, but her scope of interest includes also painting. Colour and its refined combinations reign in Zholobetska's painting.
Has been attending the "Workshop of Possibilities" since 2016.

Nazar Yonenko

2008, Kyiv

Yonenko's artistic practice is recognisable for its graphic nature and tendency for cartographic motives. The material that the artist works with is the information realm. The news reports that he continuously follows transform in his works into base maps: the metro, the streets of the city.
Has been attending the "Workshop of Possibilities" since 2016.

Nikita Kadan

1982, Kyiv

Nikita Kadan's practice is structured around the themes of memory, archive, violence and struggle of ideologies. The artist speaks about today's appropriation of images of victims from the past and contraposes alternative histories of those who were rejected and excluded to the dominating "history of the winners". Another line in Kadan's work relates to the political dimension of the history of art. Quotes from art of the 20th century, specifically, Ukrainian avant-garde, are combined in the artist's works with photographic documents of mass terror, developing thus a multilayered and internally complex narrative about the past. In the contradictions of the past viewed in that way, one may see seeds of an uncertain future.
Has been attending the "Workshop of Possibilities" since 2019.

Anastasia Kravchuk

2003, Kyiv

In Kravchuk's artistic practice, abstract painting prevails. Her abstraction is dedicated to real events and phenomena. The artist's painting is remarkable for its delicate colouring.
Has been attending the "Workshop of Possibilities" since 2018.

Дарина Малюк

2006, Lviv

Animalistic plots prevail in Malyuk's artistic practice. The animals in the artist's works are endowed with fancy features. The artist pays much attention to the text component. In her artist's diaries, along with the process of reflection on life events, communication and search for answers to important questions develop.
Has been attending the "Workshop of Possibilities" since 2020.

Yevhenia Mysik

2003, Sudak

Cautious approach and focus on the process are characteristic for Mysik's artistic practice. The process itself is meditative, and it tends for reserve rather than expressiveness.
In terms of materials, the artist prefers pencils and felt pens.
Has been attending the "Workshop of Possibilities" since 2018.

Petro Mykhailov

1983, Kyiv

In Mykhailov's artistic practice, the process of developing an idea is as important as a result. Only once he has elaborated all the details of a future work, it starts appearing on paper.
Has been attending the "Workshop of Possibilities" since 2018.

Oleksii Ovdienko

2001, Kyiv

Ovdienko's artistic language tends for conceptual practices. In his work, the artist pays extraordinary attention to the colour.
Information environment in which he finds himself is in the focus of Ovdienko's artistic explorations. This overloaded media environment is transformed in his work into minimalistic compositions where every element finds its precise place.
Has been attending the "Workshop of Possibilities" since 2016.

Artem Oliynyk

2003, Kyiv

The main object in Oliynyk's exploration is the sun: in photographs and on paper. Therefore, the major colour in his painting is yellow. The sun is both the main substance, atmosphere and theme. Therefore, in the artist's work, plots prevail that are related to the sun: beach, heat, light.
Has been attending the "Workshop of Possibilities" since 2016.

Oleksandr Pylypenko

1995, Mariupol

Real places attended and events that happened to Pylypenko are in the centre of his focus. His painting and graphic works are filled with objects to which the artist attributes symbolic meaning that refers to one memory or another.
Has been attending the "Workshop of Possibilities" since 2016.

Kyrylo Smereka

1996, Kryvy Rih

Smereka's artistic practice is focused on a detailed depicting of the surrounding world. Documenting events from the artist's life, Smereka's works become a kind of a diary, and make up a certain archive of everyday life, continuously updated.
Has been attending the "Workshop of Possibilities" since 2019.

Pavlo Khomenko

2004, Kyiv

Khomenko's artistic practice is focused on creation of images – the artist produces fancy images in impressive quantities. Those fill a universe inspired by characters of Japanese animation director Hayao Miyadzaki and from other animation films.
Khomenko's technique features confidence in lines that command colour.
Has been attending the "Workshop of Possibilities" since 2018.

Artem Tsarenko

1997, Kyiv

Tsarenko's artistic practice is remarkable for its graphic nature and using local colours. Objects in his work are presented using a minimum of means. Tsarenko's drawing is coherent and meditative.
Has been attending the "Workshop of Possibilities" since 2018.

Varvara Shyshlova

2008, Kyiv

In Shyshlova's artistic practice, painting expression prevails. In her painting work, exploring properties of material, the artist follows reality. If it is colour that reigns in Shyshlova's painting works, in her videos, she focuses on the plot. There, the artist documents her prospective on the world and aesthetises moments of the routine.
Has been attending the "Workshop of Possibilities" since 2016.

Anna Scherbyna

1988, Zaporizhzhia

The artist uses such media as painting, drawing, installation and video. In her practice, Scherbyna conceptualises the past, analyses the traditions of the socialist realism painting and classic art education, and covers subjects related to the social and political situation, feminism and violence.
Has been attending the "Workshop of Possibilities" since 2019.

General view of the exposition

Mark Volkov. Untitled, 2020

Oleksii Ovdienko. Several Days Later, 2020

Daryna Malyuk. Daryna's Pets, 2020

Yelizaveta Bukina. Bird, 2020

General view of the exposition