Packing Light and Carrying Hope from Ukraine

Packing Light

An exhibition of works from OLEH LYFORENKO, MARIA SHULHA, & OLEKSII ZHUKOV

Opening 19:00, Friday 2/12/22 – until 18/1/23 Galeria Rebel c/ d’Ernest Anastasio 37, Valencia

Friday, opening 19.00 – 23.00

Sat/ Sun 12.00 – 21.00

See @rebelcabanyal for further opening times, or by request. 

A long weekend, a winter escape, a birthday celebration.

You don’t want to double the price of your flight so you stuff the essentials in a small backpack.

It’s going to be warm; you don’t need much.

And then a war breaks out.

This was the beginning of the story for these three Ukrainian artists travelling to Valencia, Spain, in February 2022.

Three Ukrainian Academy artists break from tradition to explore ideas of home, nationality, and identity in this deeply personal exhibition.

In the exhibition Packing Light at galeria Reb/el cabanyal; Oleh, Maria, and Oleksii, three artists and refugees from the conflict

in Ukraine, are exploring the loss of their homeland, reflecting on the stories of horror and destruction from the places they played as children- where their families and friends remain, and their relationship with their new surroundings. How even great beauty can become distorted when it is enforced, how generosity can be suffocating when it is indispensable, and how their passion for art, for creating, documenting, and for expression, has helped them to survive, evolve and develop, artistically and

personally.

From the artists:

We are Oleksii, Oleh, Maria and Diana (who unfortunately does not participate in the exhibition with us), artists from Ukraine who turned out to be forced refugees from the war who have had to merge into a new, unfamiliar environment for us.

We came to Spain to celebrate Maria’s birthday on February 24 with one backpack for each. Despite the alarming news stories, we did not believe that the war would begin. We planned to fly home early on the morning of February 26th but the war made adjustments to our plans and we were forced to stay here. I think we were very lucky because our parents stayed in this hell. Maria is from Mariupol and her parents are still there. But fortunately, despite the situation, all our parents are fine.

Mariupol was almost wiped off the face of the earth. Kharkiv is bombarded with rockets almost every day. And many other cities are subjected to daily terror. Gradually we began to get used to our situation and start doing our main business – we bought materials, started doing work. Slowly we began to accumulate materials and thanks to our acquaintance with the owner of the Reb/el gallery, Terry, and his help, we decided to hold this exhibition.

The main objectives of the exhibition are to tell our story- about how our situation developed and we had to get used to a new and unfamiliar environment for us, and acquaint the audience with Ukrainian art, our symbols, and our culture.

Each of us has a certain style that is not similar to each other, and thanks to this, there is a huge contrast between our artworks. For us this situation turned out to be something new, unusual for us, with which we almost coped, and to which we adapted.

Maria

I am Maria Shulga. Born in Ukraine, the city of Mariupol. In

2018 I entered the Kharkiv State Academy of Design and Fine

Arts (2018-2022) and earned a degree in Restoration and

examination of works of art. Since childhood, I loved to draw

and wanted to connect my life with art. I chose the Faculty of

Restoration, because it is there that I can study the art of the

past and present, not only from books, but also from personal

experience in the restoration of the art. Unfortunately, I had to

finish my studies remotely, being in another country, due to

Russia’s military invasion of Ukraine. I have participated in

exhibitions in my native city of Mariupol, as well as in a

number of international and city exhibitions in the Kharkiv

House of Artists. My paintings are in private collections in

Ukraine and USA.

Oleg

My name is Oleg Lyforenko, I was born and lived in Ukraine, but

since the beginning of the war I had to stay here, in the Valencia

region. I am engaged in painting. I am a muralist by education.

All the works exhibited here were made during these months

that we are here. The presented works are executed in different

techniques. I works in an expressive manner, in the direction of

transavantgarde. Many of my works are products of creative

improvisation. I like to compose stories with a share of absurdity

and irony, transform characters, designate them as separate

fragments, but at the same time leave them anthropomorphic.

Due to lack of materials some of the work was done on

cardboard that I found on the streets, painted with building paint.

It was interesting, I think the simpler the material, the more

creativity. In this regard I don’t think about academic results. It

was important for me to investigate the composition during the

process, I do do most of the works without sketches, I do what is

interesting to me at the moment of drawing. I embody in my art

postulates which are characterised by postmodernism:

deconstruction, quotation, borrowing of materials and ideas of

art contemporary.

In these ways I try to achieve the result of creating new ethical

and aesthetic norms.

Oleksii

I am Oleksii Zhukov. I was born in Ukraine, in the city of

Kharkiv in 1999. In 2014 I entered the Kharkiv Art College

(2014-2018). I studied to be an artist-teacher. In 2018, I

entered the Kharkiv State Academy of Design and Fine Arts

(2018-2021) majoring in monumental artist (street art).

Before the war, my friends and I went on a short trip to Spain

for 4 days to celebrate Maria’s birthday.

Contrary to our expectations, just on her birthday, we were

caught by the war in Ukraine. In this regard, we were forced

to conduct our creative activities from Spain. It took me, like

the rest of the guys, time to get used to a foreign

environment and return somehow to the creative level at

which I was before the war.

During these months, I rethought a lot and my style, in my

opinion, acquired a certain imprint of this situation in a

positive sense – I began to work more productively and

experiment. Our situation influenced this. I mainly focus on

illustrations and landscapes. I love to paint landscapes, but I

also enjoy doing decorative still lifes. For most ideas, I use

bottles. Most likely, I was inspired by the still lifes of Giorgio

Morandi back in 2018 and rethought it in my own way. I

started making the first still lifes in this subject at the

beginning of 2021.

My paintings are in private collections in the USA, China,

Germany, Great Britain, Switzerland, Poland, Spain and

Ukraine.

Reb/el is a gallery, arts space, creative and community hub in El Cabanyal, Valencia.

It is an open and inclusive space for the community to explore world class cultural and artistic works and

ideas. Our doors are open to all backgrounds and ages. The space, materials and creative talent we have

are available to anyone wanting to join us and create something for the community.

We are a creative collective of visual, musical, and performance artists with a broad range of

competencies including: Architecture, production, design, teaching and languages as well as the creative

arts.

We aim to incorporate our passions to create immersive experiences, to expand our community, and

explore avenues of collaboration.

With our simple policy of openness and inclusivity we hope to attract as broad a range of people as

possible to share ideas, methods, influences and experiences- and establish new ones.