Unbreakable

October 28 - December 30, 2023

Curated by  Khrystyna BEREHOVSKA, PhD (Art director of the Kozytskyi Charity Foundation)

Opening Reception: Saturday October 28, 2023 (12-4pm)

Featuring a performance by Khrystyna Chemeris

OLEXANDRA BEZEMSKA, LIUDMYLA DAVYDENKO, HANNA DRUL, PAVLO FULEI, TARAS HAIDA, VOVA KENO, OLHA KUZYURA, EVGENIA POBEREZHNA, IVANNA NECHYPORUK, NOTUKO, IRYNA MARKO, IRYNA MAKSYMOVA LIUBOMYR MEDVID, VASYL  ODREKHIVSKYI, DIANA RUBAN, YEVHENII SHAPOVALOV, PETRO SMETANA, LILIA STUDNYTSKA, VITALII VANDYAK, RYMMA VYNOGRADOVA

An exhibition of Ukrainian art called "Unbreakable" demonstrates more than just the ability of Ukrainians to endure the unbearable reality during the war. Each work indirectly shows how we overcome negative bias, how we squeeze painful thoughts and experiences out of ourselves, how we educate ourselves with self-esteem, and how, despite daily tragedies, we move towards triumph, while maintaining inner peace. Since the beginning of the full scale war Ukraine has become a symbol of invincibility and the struggle for freedom for the entire civilized world.

The war that we heard about from the lips of our grandparents ... has become a reality today. Just in one day, February 24th, our world turned our upside down. A year of fear, a year of pain, a year of an amazing, invincible nation, a year of tough and constant resistance of our people in every corner of Ukraine, a year of a desperate and brave struggle for peace. Warriors, volunteers, doctors, priests, politicians, artists, pensioners and students daily demonstrate their invincibility and stubbornness. Ukrainians resisted in their homes in Bucha, Olenivka, IzIum, Chernobaivka, Hostomel, Mariupol, Lysychansk, and Sievierodonetsk. They lost everything in the fight against the occupier: houses, limbs, common sense, chastity, nails, hair, life...

Thousands have left this world, hundreds have escaped from the hell of captivity, and millions are striving to live in a peaceful country, which is known today in every corner of the planet. The exhibition contains 37 artworks by 23 well-known and honoured Ukrainian artists who actively continue to work creatively and donate most of their works to charity, to help the army and the affected Ukrainians. Each artwork, in particular and as a whole, shows a suggestion of the resistance of Ukrainian artists, those who continue to work in the rear, those who went through the hellish evacuation route, those who replaced the brush and canvas with a rifle. On the canvases, one can reprimand the confrontation between nature and architectural heritage, the resistance of courageous warriors, women and mothers. Every Ukrainian artist today is a courageous ambassador of his country. After all, courage is just the ability to maintain dignity under the pressure of bad circumstances, when in the morning until night you have in your mind to maintain invincibility.

The charity exhibition is held within the framework of the art project WE & the WORLD, as a part of the Kozytskyi Charity Foundation, whose mission is to carry out and support the cultural diplomacy of Ukraine, to organize promotional exhibitions of Ukrainian contemporary art around the world. Exhibitions were already held in Berlin (03.06.22), Vienna (05.06.22), Lviv (16.06.22), Paris (28.06.22), Rome (19.07.22), Prague (05.10.2022), Toronto, (13.10.22), Chicago (18.11.2022), Warsaw (07.11.2022), Lviv (21.12.2022), Daytona Beach (14.01.2023), Fort Myers (16.01.2023), Sarasota (18.01.2023), Lugano (23.01.2023), Rochester (31.01.2023), New York ( 14.02.2023, 15.02,2023, 20.02.2023), Cleveland (23.02.2023).