From Past to Present

Ethnic Heritage through the Eyes of My Elders (Children's exhibit)

December 7, 2014 – January 25, 2015

The Ukrainian Institute of Modern Art (UIMA) and the Ukrainian National Museum are pleased to host the children’s art exhibition From Past to Present.

In this exhibition, the two museums invited children to explore the notions of cultural heritage by asking their grandparents what would they like to leave as a legacy. The Ukrainian National Museum, engaged the experiences and artistic skills of Chicago-based youth, while the Ukrainian Institute of Modern Art reached out to children living in Ukraine.
The works by these young artists both illustrate the disappearing world of their grandparents, as well as encapsulate the riches that their elders would like the younger generations to keep for the future. “From Past to Present” highlights the most precious gifts that one can pass on to progeny: the gift of traditions.

Opening reception: December 7, 2014 (Sunday 1pm – 3pm)

Long Path to Freedom

Ukrainian Art Between Revolution and Hybrid War

October 24, 2014 - January 18, 2015

Opening reception: October 24, 6-9pm

“Long Path to Freedom” is a special exhibition presented by the Ukrainian Institute of Modern Art that documents and reflects upon the activism, unrest and trauma experienced during recent ongoing political crisis surrounding the Ukrainian revolution: A period widely considered the country’s most tumultuous since achieving independence in 1991.

“Long Path to Freedom” includes three curated components featuring work by Ukrainian artists across digital, graphic and photographic mediums. ‘The Breath of Maidan’ captures the unique spirit of the protest movement of Winter 2013-14 on Kiev’s Maidan Nezalezhnosti (Independence Square); the epicenter for activism and subsequent violence. ‘Vision of Trauma’ accounts the devastation caused by the separatist movement and resulting war with photographic images of displaced citizens and volunteer military. The final component, an installation, emulates “Mystetsky Barbakan,” an improvised gallery of digital prints created by artists that functioned on the barricades in Kiev in Winter 2013-14.

Participating artists: Alexander Chekmenev, Oksana Chepelyk, Roman Gromov, Dariya Koltsova, Olexa Mann, Roman Mykhayluk, Anastasiya Nekypela, Maria Pavlenko, Vlada Ralko, Stepan Riabchenko, Ivan Semesiuk, Nikita Shalennyi, Andriy Sydorenko, Mykyta Zavilinsky.

Curated by Alisa Lozhkina and Andriy Sydorenko

Alisa Lozhkina art critic and curator, deputy director of one of the major Ukrainian art institutions – Mystetsky Arsenal and editor in chief of ART UKRAINE magazine. Studied at Kyiv Mohyla Academy (Kyiv, Ukraine) and Higher Courses for Scriptwriters and Film Directors (Moscow, Russia). Works and lives in Kyiv, Ukraine.

Andriy Sydorenko artist, researcher and curator in Modern Art Research Institute of the National Academy of Arts of Ukraine. Born in 1983 in Kharkiv, lives and works in Kiev, Ukraine. Studied at National Academy of Fine Arts and Architecture, Kiev, Ukraine.

Opening of the exhibit Flickr

Opening Reception

Stella: The Nature of a Collective

Opening reception: Friday, October 3, 2014 (6-9pm)

October 3, 2014 - November 30, 2014

“Stella: The Nature of a Collective” features work by 12 artists in a diversity of media originating in photography. Presented by the Stella Photography Collective in cooperation with the Ukrainian Institute of Modern Art, the exhibition is organized around issues of the collective and the natural world. The exhibit includes photography, video, installation, collage, large draped photographic screens and 3-D imagery.

For the individual artists of the Stella Photography Collective this exhibition is an opportunity to explore new ways to present work in collaboration, deepening their practice. Thematically, the work is concerned with nature and the natural world, as well as the nature of human experience: growth, decay, camouflage, geography, security and sensuality.

Stella Photography Collective formed in 2008 as a monthly critique group and has a rich history of mutual support and creative challenge. The collective includes 13 women, 2 of whom work as a collaborative team. Members are based in Chicago and surrounding communities, including Milwaukee. They are: Aimée Beaubien, Suzette Bross, Patty Carroll, Liz Chilsen, Ciurej & Lochman (Barbara Ciurej and Lindsay Lochman), Christine DiThomas, Mary Farmilant, Alice Hargrave, Kate Joyce, Mayumi Lake, Jean Sousa, Peggy Wright

In conjunction with the exhibition, the collective plans two lively events inviting visitors to enjoy refreshments – some of which respond to ideas in the work – while participating in creative activities based on selected exhibition themes. A Sunday “Lunch-in” on October 12th from 1:00 – 3:00 PM, and a workshop “The Nature of Nature: An Afternoon Repast of Botany and Memory” on November 2nd from 2:00 – 4:00 PM

Purchase catalog of the Stella: The Nature of a Collective exhibition – HERE

Preview exhibit – HERE

Survival, Spirit, Dreams, Nightmares

February 9 – March 30, 2014 

Opening February 9, 2014 (Sunday 2 – 5pm)

The exhibition features works by artists addressing themes of culture and ethnicity, survival, and the power of the human spirit in overcoming adversity. Four artists with different life journeys are telling stories through their paintings, prints and sculptures. This exhibition includes Chicago artists René Hugo Arceo, Mark Nelson, Yohanan Petrovsky-Shtern and ex-Chicagoan Peter Dallos.

René Hugo Arceo was born in Cojumatlan, Michoacan, Mexico in 1959. He completed high school after relocating to the United States in 1979 and soon thereafter attended the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. From 1986 to 1999, Rene worked for the Mexican Fine Arts Center Museum in Chicago, helping it become the largest Mexican Fine Arts institution in the nation. Arceo’s work has been influenced by the traditions of Mexican printmaking and by his regard for the work of Mexican artists. He is working in various relief print media with the themes of life and culture that surrounds him with the ancestral spirit lurking behind him.

Peter Dallos spent his early years under the Hungarian fascist regime and later under the Soviet occupation. He immigrated to the U.S. after the Hungarian Revolution of 1956. His professional life has been in neuroscience research, currently as the John Evans Professor Emeritus of Neuroscience at Northwestern University, Evanston, IL.
In 1998, he began making sculptures and has been a professional sculptor since 2012. In his “Struggle Series,” he is concerned with elemental conflicts that affect humankind. The semi-abstract sculptures depict the reaction of the wounded earth to environmental destruction. Alternatively, the work can be interpreted as showing the conflict between Western Civilization and the forces of nihilism and anarchy.

Mark Nelson’s work was forged by his childhood experiences overseas. Raised as a Colonial American outside of the continental U.S., his international travels Culminated in a near twenty-year residence within the Republic of Panama where he developed an interest in visual and performing arts. Nelson returned to the USA to finish his formal education at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, followed by a Masters in Fine Arts at the University of Illinois in Chicago. Eventually, Mark Nelson took up permanent residence in Pilsen, where he resides and works in his Gringolandia Studio. His new works from the “Panama Series” reflect the cultural and physical landscape that made it his home for nearly 2 decades.

Yohanan Petrovsky-Shtern was born in the U.S.S.R. and grew up under socialism. He came to the United States in 1996 to study Jewish history at Brandeis University. In 2003, Yohanan joined the faculty of the History Department at Northwestern University, where he currently serves as the Crown Family Professor of Jewish Studies.
In his “Nightmares Series” he is working with acrylic on canvas, in mostly three hard-edge color compositions, culminating in a final visual effect of powerful, paper-cut-like imagery. His themes are a combination of recognizable religious, literary and historical visual references. Yohanan addresses universal themes of catastrophe, violence, and fear which he represents through the prism of Jewish experience.

Preview the exhibition – HERE

Order catalog – HERE

Gallery Talk, with Mark Nelson and Yohanan Petrovsky-Shtern, is scheduled for Sunday, February 23 at 1pm
Cost: Free. Donations are welcomed.

Opening Reception