Image: Igor Gusev, series 3 world war 2022

An exhibition of contemporary Ukrainian art "Invasion" opens on April 28 at Kobka 17 on Smíchovská Náplavka. This is a project of the Galerie hlavního města Prahy within the Art for the City programme in cooperation with the Czech Center Kyiv.

This exhibition project is an attempt to show the war through the eyes of contemporary Ukrainian artists - Danylo Movchan (Lviv), Igor Gusev (Odessa), Alexander Naselenko (Odessa). All of them are now in Ukraine, which is why all the works at the exhibition are digital copies.

The dominant feature of the exhibition project is the work of Danylo Movchan. In the stains of watercolor that capture paper, we see human bodies and destinies that are captured by war. Danilo Movchan was born in 1979 in Lviv and has extensive experience in icon painting, which is reflected in his works. Danilo participates in more than 90 international exhibitions and projects, and his works are stored in churches and private collections in Ukraine, Poland, Italy, Germany, France, Canada, Finland and the United States. The exhibition presents works from the series "Invasion".

“The war in Ukraine. Anxiety, pain, sadness, despair, crying, waiting… There are no colors on earth to convey this tragedy. The pain of the whole body is indescribable. Life in a state of war has brought great unrest to my world. I started looking for ways to share this with people. Relive your story of these events. Images of war began to create in my imagination these compositions. I postponed drawing icons… There is no peace in my soul to continue my sacred work,” Danylo Movchan describes the series.

The works of Igor Gusev from Odessa are permeated with a subtle irony of absurdity. He rethinks established stereotypes in art, creating art objects in response to today's greatest threats. Igor was born in Odessa in 1970. Gusev continues the tradition of true punk with elements of Dadaism. He is a participant and organizer of international events, performances, exhibitions and the founder of galleries. It has been exhibited since the 1990s and is currently stored in museums and private collections in Ukraine, Germany and the USA. In the gallery Kobka 17 you can see works from the series "World War 3, 2022".

Sasha Naselenko's works were made a week before the full-scale Russian invasion of Ukraine. The main goal of the series "Unfinished Studies of the Ukrainian South" is a visual study of the Ukrainian South's anthropological, historical and environmental aspects, particularly around the Dniester estuary, near which the author spent his childhood. Mysticism, a permanent state of expectation, steppe landscape, social tension - in this eclectic, the author sees his method. Sasha Naselenko is a Ukrainian photographer from Belgorod-Dniestrovsky (Odessa region). He has collaborated with popular Ukrainian artists and bands Jamala, Sunsay, Onuka, as well as other representatives of modern Ukrainian culture.

"Everyone is doing their best to end the war sooner. Art has not saved the peace and can not. On the other hand, art can calm the soul and force it to return again and again to this calming feeling, paving the way to something different from what we had before,” Sasha Naselenko emphasizes.

During the exhibition project "Invasion" curators also aim to present contemporary Ukrainian art, in particular: poetic and musical readings of modern Ukrainian poetry, screenings of Ukrainian films in Ukrainian, performances, reading modern dramatic texts by Ukrainian authors.

Attendance is free or for a charitable contribution, all proceeds will be used to help children and the wounded in Odessa - in the Foundation of the Monster Corporation. The project will raise funds for Ukraine, particularly for women and children who suffer from Russia's military aggression.