The Vakulenko Art Consulting Gallery is staging a personal exhibition entitled “Cult Personalities” by the famous contemporary Ukrainian artist Oleksandr Roitburd. The exposition opened in the Ukrainian capital on Sep. 28 and will run till Oct. 28.
Oleksandr Roitburd is a well-known Ukrainian artist, curator, and active cultural figure, who held the position of director of the Odesa Art Museum. He was born in 1961 in the southern Ukrainian port city of Odesa and passed away in August 2021. In 1983, he graduated from the Art and Graphic Faculty of the Odesa Pedagogical Institute. He participated in over 100 0 art exhibitions and projects, including the 49th Venice Biennale (2001). Roitburd’s works are present in the collections of MoMA (Museum of Modern Art, New York, USA), DUMA (Duke University Art Museum, Durham, USA), and Modern Gallery (Ljubljana, Slovenia).
The characters and narratives in his works are important and contain exciting themes. The majority of narrative elements in Oleksandr Roitburd’s work include references to world culture, as elaborated and reinterpreted by the artist himself.
Roitburd chooses the characters for the narrative extremely carefully and selectively, creating specific archetypal, generalized images and passing them through an artistic filter.
Cult personalities interested the artist for many years, as did various projects in the context of the lives of ordinary people and how modern society functions. All these personalities have changed the world or someone’s life either through their activities or their existence.
The range of works presented at the exhibition included portraits of famous Ukrainian and world cult figures, including The Beatles, Andy Warhol, philosopher Hryhoriy Skovoroda, and Benjamin Franklin. The artist constructs his reality for the heroes that he has chosen. He does this ironically and, at the same time, simultaneously involves his own experience and feelings or reflecting on the cult of these personalities in society.
The current exhibition presents works from his private collections of 1999−2017 and from the artist’s notable projects, namely “If there is no water in the tap” and “Gallant Age of Enlightenment.”
The art work “Andy Warhol” from the project “If there is no water in the tap” by Oleksandr Roitburd from the “Cult personalities” exhibition on display at Vakulenko Art Consulting Gallery. (Photo Credit: Vakulenko Art Consulting Gallery).
The art work “Skovoroda was born” on display at the Vakulenko Art Consulting Gallery. (Photo Credit: Aleksandra Klitina)
Art work “Benjamin Franklin in sorrow and joy” at the Vakulenko Art Consulting Gallery. (Photo Credit: Vakulenko Art Consulting Gallery).
Exhibition schedule:
Wednesday – Sunday: from 11:00 to 19:00;
Monday – Tuesday – weekends: from 11:00 to 19:00.
Address: Kyiv, Kostyolna St., 8
Entrance to the exhibition is free.
