Artists demonstrate a new normal in Odesa

The exhibition "Calendar for Two. A Graphic Decade" opened in Odesa on August 16 at the Museum of Ukrainian Books as an attempt, according to the organizers, to show this new normal that emerged in the lives of Ukrainians from 2013 to 2023.

An Int'l correspondent visited the exhibition.

"By bringing together two artists, the project creates a space where a blurred, vague halo of uncertainty takes shape - both at the level of matter and at the level of consciousness. The artists, who have studied together in Hrekivka since 1979, created a family, worked together all their lives, almost in full collaboration with each other, began to express their thoughts and impressions of the day in different ways on paper, as the most accessible material," the organizers of the exhibition noted.

The exhibition featured works by Valeriy Tsonin, who returned to watercolor. The artist noted that as a painter he felt that during the period of study and work he could not reach all the heights of this technique, so he began to experiment and study contemporary watercolor, which, according to the artist, has become very relevant in Europe and around the world. Participation in many biennials and competitions became his favorite thing, he believed that Ukraine, which has a great art school, is almost unknown to the general public in the world and popularizing the country during the invasion is, in his opinion, the most important thing.

The second participant of the exhibition, Toma Tsonina-Tron, as an artist, ceramicist, designer, graphic artist, has a preference for line and shape over color in her work, so in her opinion, it was quite natural for her to return to such an almost childlike technique of pastel on cardboard.

"Everything that is everyday in life and majestic events have been embodied and sublimated on cardboard by the artist's hand. Simple things, still lives, the female body that changes with age, the tragic events of the war, abstractions - unstable, fragmented, full of inner tension - so different and so integral in perception, the works of this decade are exhibited at the exhibition," the organizers noted.

PHOTO: Kateryna Galenko.

Катерина Галенко