Looking for the perfect gallery in the artsy capital
Being a creative person, I have always liked creativity in all its manifestations. There were times when I attended art galleries and museums regularly once or even twice a week. Unfortunately, because of a lack of free time I gradually gave up my visits to art galleries completely. It remained that way until my friend, Andriy, a student at Kyiv Arts Academy and a connoisseur of art, invited me to join him on his “gallery walk,” and I accepted the offer. Apart from the mere prospect of spending time in good company, I thought it was also a great opportunity to find out which Kyiv gallery I should recommend most to my readers.
We decided to start our trip at Dim Khudozhnyka (Painter’s House), one of Kyiv’s oldest art galleries and among the most prestigious. The first floor of the big building, which sits on Lvivska Ploshcha, was dedicated to Volodymyr Kharchenko’s photo exposition. The rest of the museum was located on the third floor, which consisted of three halls and at the time of our visit each of them was dedicated to a separate exhibition. In the first room we found Havrylo Hluk’s paintings of bright and soft colors, while the second room hosted Nataliya Kravchuk’s (photographer at Korrespondent magazine) black-and-white photos depicting the life of homeless and orphan children. The moods of these two exhibitions were so different that when I entered the second room I felt something of a shock. While I would still place Dim Khudozhnyka among the best art galleries, hosting exhibitions that carry such different ideas and moods in the same place at the same time is, to my mind, not a good idea.
From Lvivska Ploshcha, Andriy led me to Andriyivskiy Uzviz, an ancient Kyiv street which is something of a big art gallery itself. However, several galleries we planned on visiting there were closed and the only one that welcomed us was Tryptykh. The pleasant design of the gallery’s three halls, good lighting and relaxing music created a friendly atmosphere and left me with pleasant impressions. The only drawback of Tryptykh gallery was the lack of space. Sometimes if the picture is really big, you feel the need to step a couple of meters back to get the perfect view of it, but the rooms of the gallery are too small to do so.
The next gallery we had on our list that day was Mystetskiy Arsenal (Art Arsenal). From the very beginning I was really impressed with its design. Two spacious halls had their white walls painted in such a way that brickwork showed in some places. I also noted that the gallery had good lighting and enough space to allow its visitors to walk around comfortably and view all the works from whatever distance they choose, however it wasn’t impressive enough to call it the best gallery in Kyiv. Besides, we observed that the rooms were equipped with a sound system, but we didn’t hear any music.
We made our next stop at the Foundation for Promoting Arts Development. The poster at the entrance informed us that the current exhibition was dedicated to the works of two painters from Holland: Josevan Tubergen and Rene van Kempen. Upon entering the gallery, I was pleasantly surprised to see a table with a pile of booklets that provided information about the artists and the exhibition. Inside, the art gallery is beautifully decorated. The walls are painted in light pastel colors and every room has a sofa to rest on. The thing that amazed me most, however, was the piano in the second room.
After this last visit we felt really tired, but there was one more gallery remaining on our list and without it, according to Andriy, my article wouldn’t be complete. It was the PinchukArtCentre, a popular art hangout that is still quite new, having opened last autumn. Unfortunately, however, we weren’t able to enter because it was currently making way for a new exhibition. However, my art expert friend took the liberty to tell me all about it himself, as, according to him, PinchukArtCentre was clearly the best gallery in Kyiv. Not only was it located in the very center of Kyiv – inside Arena Entertainment building at Bessarabska Ploshcha – it was also one of the biggest art centers in Eastern Europe, consisting of several floors and spacious rooms designed with European-style elegance. On top of that, it hosted exhibitions that always attracted the attention of media, art-loving audiences and representatives of the local art scene. The next exhibition is going to feature contemporary photographs from the collection of Elton John himself. After I’d seen pictures from some of the exhibitions and heard some more opinions about the art center, I was firmly persuaded – PinchukArtCentre was indeed the best Kyiv art gallery, and I decided to visit it finally once it opens next week.
PinchukArtCentre (Arena Entertainment, 1-3/2 Chervonoarmiyska/Baseyna, floors 4-6, 590-08-58)
