olechko

Today I headed out to share with a few friends the better places to see art on Andriyivksy and in Podil. We’ve stopped by a few art sellers on the street,  five galleries  and took two coffies on our route.  These are the treasures we found:

Some very decent street art (the better works tended to be are sold by the artists themselves, they come out to the market only on weekends). Below are the pictures by  Shumakov V. with his cute little paintings of Pirogovo; Yuri Kachkin with small Kyiv landmark oils on pane; and tiny oforts by R. Sydorec.  All these were small works that did not cost more then $50 a piece - not bad.

The really good staff we found in Gallery 36 (36, Andriyivsky descent) - well-established and non-presumptious (12 years on the market), it sells mid-range (about $500 per piece) local artists. A few years back we bought from there a levkas by Igor Prokofyev - one of those baby-faced  fuzzy figures in late eighteen hundreds settings.

Then we popped into Hochari gallery where I recognized a little cute sculpture by Pylnyk - I am going back to Lviv to pick it up though - once again, I confirmed that the price markup on Lviv art market in Kyiv is 150%  for the same artists’ works!

The well-advertised White gallery current show did not impress us much. The other galleries Karas Atelier and art center by NaUKMA were closed so Zeh was the last spot on our itinerary. And what a treat it was.

Lovely Margo - gallerina at Zeh- let us dig into the back room fare - all the best current contemporary from Kyiv as well as brilliant upcoming stuff from the regions (the gallery specializes on out0of-towners). Now Yuri Pikul has a solo show there till August 2nd. He is only 23 and does very interesting post-photo realist oils of random landscapes and war-era shots.

Yuri Solomko  with his larger-then-life pictures of preserves is also represented there. He is the renowned artist from whom I’ve been lucky to take classes this spring, organized by and for IWCK.

Also we were really impressed with the paintings by Igor Pereklita, an unconventional Transcarpathian with his surreal poster-like paintings of beauties in typical Ukrainian landscapes.

The crawl made me make a list of tree good restaurants to visit on the Andriyivsky in the near future - Za Dvoma Zaycyamy (a guy in general’s uniform greets you at the entrance there, 34 Anrdiyivsky) Parmezan, 36 Andriyivsky) and Vernisazh(down the street from the first two). We ended up taking coffee at Kaffa (Scovorody st) - it has  great decor inside, ample seating outside and  some sumptuous coffee on their menu.

Three bottom pictures are courtesy of Zeh gallery website.

17.5 x 20 sm, oil on canvas paper

Here’s a new small painting from the small series of baby-related objects. This was the best present - my friend Wendy sent this Doudou for us from Montreal. Clair , who is a French expat in Kyiv, also recognized in it a very popular toy for babies in France (it’s a fancy safety blanket). Dodo is such a patient model that I will be doing more of him in the future.

Before I could write another post, one more came out: Doudou no.2:

I came across her livejournal blog which reminded me I saw her paintings before some place. I’d rather post this artists’ photo here then the work; she makes up for a much more esthetically pleasing sight: blue-eyed blond, pixie cut, and from Lviv too - perfect! But what do I know? I am just a blogger.

Btw, a few months back she had a scandalous show in Drogobych (west Ukraine). Her painting of four-breasted Mary appalled the city mayor to the point he shut down the show early.

Let’s walk down Andriyvsky and to Podil to see what’s on show at private little galleries on the way. The locations I have in mind for us are:

Tryptyh with pretty landscapes
White Gallery with well advertised exhibit
Gallery 36
Atelier Karas with a fine collective
Kyiv Fine Art with some naked girls
Parsuna with Podil inspired dolls
Zeh with promising “March of Oats” show
Gallery at Kyiv-Mohyla academy

Contact me if you would like to join. I am thinking Saturday afternoon.

In the Ukrainian art scene I noticed a fun trend - at the commercial galleries there are lots of portraits with oversized heads  - the people look like grown-up babies.  We got one picture like that for a present two years back from the Gallery 36. These baby-people I pleasant to live with.  This one by Vladislav Shereshevsky is of the  Romanov family

I particularly like his society portraits, clearly modern faces in late eighteen hundreds setting., like these ladies in red on the bottom.  Altogether, here’s another trend - a fascination with the pre-revolution period - seen all throughout Andriyivsky descent on painting settings, restaurant interiors, etc. Well, it fits the period architecture as soon as you step out there outdoors.

All pictures are from the artists’ website.

Yesterday we popped into a few galleries to see what’s on.  The first on the way was Fine Art Kiev on 12 Velyka Zhytomyrska.  The exhibition by Ms. Kin’ called “My beautiful friends” was the lest artistic, looks like  average studio photographs, except for the pregnant girl - that one glows.

Next stop - Gallery 36 (36 Andriyivsky descent). That one holds a well-advertised exhibit called Unconscious by Oleksandr Milovzorov.  This paintings were just the associative splashes of color, he could have simply framed and hanged up his palettes on the walls. They demonstrate his great sence of color though.

Triptyсh Gallery down the street currently holds an exhibit by Oleksiy Appolonov.  I really liked two or three of his landscapes, very to-the-point massive brush strokes and perfect combination of color.  His art would be good to live with in your apartment. Tryptyh generally specializes in sellable art, for that reason they prefer not to let people snap pictures unlike in other exhibition spaces.  Therefore you can’t see very clearly on this pic anything but the gallery puts out the artwork online.  The rest of the exhibit looked like the artist did them all on the night before the opening.

Atelier Karas presented an interesting collective show Happy L’end by Oleksandr Matviyeno,  Marsel Onishko, Robert Saller, Andriy Stegura, Vadim Kharabaruk and Nataliya Shevchenko. I really loved these:

As per my poll of the most fashionable Mind the gap, Little Miss Moi, Ms. Raluka (what’s your blog address??) and me this summer little flat sandals are definitely in style.

The things are dressy enough to keep it cool at the garden parties as well as comfy to brave those Kyiv ups and downs. The Birks on the bottom left are so classic that they do not even need an introduction.

Best refreshing way of spending an afternoon/evening - by one of the antique Kyiv fountains with some green tea (or cold beer). The prettiest one is by the Golden Gates. There is a bit hidden one on the mall between St. Sophia and Mykhailivska church (next to Hyatt). Most of these beauties date back pre-revolution times and are surrounded by seasonal bar/cafes. The only stand-alone fountains I can think of are at the Mariyinsky. Can you suggest any others?

The place whre we could not come into for the longest time becuase of the cloud of smoke that greeted us at the every attempt to enter. Today the crowd was gone (live music gigs are going to resume only in September). The decor is a soviet basement with pre-revolutoin furniture piled on top of each otehr and cave style paintings on the walls. The greatest find were the well stocked Ukrainian bookstore at the very back and the Gogol bordello poster with an autograpth by the bar.     It definitely attracts the bohemian type; I heard they serve the superb Lvivska Persha Brewery beer!

Pushkinska 2

Great place to pop in before catching a movie at the Kyiv theater across the street. I am going nuts over their chocolate moose. The baklava trays remind me of sushi. The savory food is authentic enough to attract lots of Turkish-looking guys to the place which vouches for its authenticity.

12 Velyka Vasylkivska