New Art of Ukraine: Vitaliya Yemchenko

'Love is in the air' by Vitaliya Yemchenko. Collection.mp4

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B-IzBTL13CZZY0NnVjVBbV9RNGc/view?usp=drive_web

'Love is in the air.' Collection. Vitaliya Art.

The post-perestroika generation of Ukrainian artists find ways of bringing the country's unique traditions, sensibility, and worldview to the high European cultural landscape. The legacy and the achievements of the historical Avant-Garde (1908-1930), its impact on the European mainstream, serve as a beacon and inspire them.

Art was one of the most important influences and architects of socio-political changes that took place in Ukraine on the second half of 1980-1995 years. Artists as Vysheslavsky, Kryvolap, Chichkan,  Savadov, Roytburd, Senchenko, Silvashi and Kavsan commenced to create the foundations for the emergence of the New Art in Ukraine through Art and exploration of new forms of presentation of their work. It was the time of appearance of independent Art critics, artists’ associations, galleries, patrons and corporate collections.

It also was the time of returning to and rethinking of religious contexts within Art, new approaches to the depiction of everyday life and in some way a travel through time and space. The impact that followed from overcoming the restrictions within Fine Art, developed primarily for aesthetics or beauty, affected the development of freedom of expression, development of non-figurative art, and exploration of the latest world trends.

Zhanna Kadyrova, a former Ukrainian Venice Biennale representative, was given the domestic Pinchuk Art Center Award for her provocative mosaic which plays on the traditional values of Soviet public Art. The winning piece,  Monumental Propaganda, remarks on the diminishing heritage of former Soviet traditions as Kadyrova explained during her acceptance speech. Public Art became hugely important in the protests around Independence Square in Kyiv.

Now, Ukraine's artistic youth has begun to wonder what it means to be Ukrainian today. Young artists use the Ukrainian blue and yellow flag for their inspiration. Ukraine has a very rich heritage and they want to transfer local values into Art Work. Reworking of national colours aims to demonstrate pride in their Ukranian identity. Most of them produce all of their collections locally instead of moving to some of the European capitals of Art.

Touch of Love. Hugs at the sunset. Tenderness in your eyes. 'Love is in the air' by Vitaliya Yemchenko.

Vitaliya Yemchenko

Vitaliya Yemchenko is a representative of the New Art of Ukraine. She wrote her own introduction in Ukrainian and Russian (the use of both languages doesn't involve any type of conflict there). She kindly helped me to translate into English to get the full sense of her message.

Art - the common language of the Universe. I'm happy to communicate with people from different countries and we do not need words to understand each other. It's great when you can express your thoughts, emotions and feelings in pictures and share them.

The most exciting thing about painting is the lack of boundaries. You forget about time and let your imagination run away with you in a world created by yourself where only positive emotions will live in. A world, which you have filled with.

In my paintings you will not find gloomy tones or negative emotions. I love the games of colors and unusual color combinations. I like work at the edge, that is to say, at the frontier between the real world and the world of my own imagination. It is a pleasure for me to stop a moment and convey the power of love, the energy of joy, the immensity of tranquility and harmony.

I am inspired by Nature. I believe she is the most brilliant artist ever. The immensity of the sky, sunbeams  falling on the leaves of trees swayed by the wind,  the waves of the sea, endless horizons of fields, majestic mountains, fairy forest and so on.

Drawing has always been my favorite pastime. My parents still smile when they remember how, being a child, I drew all the walls at my great-grandmother's house. She took care of me while my parents were at work.

Since then, the pencil has been with me everywhere - at school, at university and at work. I spent long hours in the office attending boring meetings drawing on my sketchbook.

Later, my loophole in the Art World has become into a design studio whose opening has allowed me to create custom advertising campaigns for European companies, in Ukraine and abroad. There I was able to give free rein to their creative imaginations.

And one day, I, a resident of Kyiv, the metropolis, decided to leave the city and live in a house near a big, almost fairy-tale forest. This decision changed my life. Day after day began to be born paintings that only were in plans before.

I started to paint in oils, acrylics and pencil drawings, taking advantage of new technologies. And I thought that maybe, it was time to stop curbing a reality that for so many years was living inside of me. Now I can say for sure that failure is not our biggest enemy but doubts and fears.

Actually, I spend most of my spare time engaged in creative work, and it gives me ineffable pleasure. My paintings found great places for living in Europe, Asia and the USA. One of my first jobs was a series of paintings, «Love is in the air», which I want to share with you. After all, love, this is the beginning of all beginnings, is the reason why it is worth living and working.

The boundaries of your imagination are the limits of your world. And I wish you allow those limits to go away.

With love,
Vitaliya

Vitaliya Art

Thank you, Vitaliya