NEW YORK, NY.- The Ukrainian Museum in New York announced the appointment of Peter Doroshenko as its new director.

Peter Doroshenko is known for his trailblazing approach to cultural institutions and amplifying them to become topical and dynamic. He has organized over two hundred exhibitions in his thirty-five year career, including solo presentations by Candice Breitz, Eric Fischl, Andreas Gursky, Boris Mikhailov, Ilya and Emilia Kabakov, Moriko Mori, Liu Xiaodong and Yelena Yemchuk. For eleven years, Doroshenko was director at Dallas Contemporary, Texas, the largest non-collecting contemporary art museum in the United States. Previously, as founding president and artistic director at the PinchukArtCentre, Kyiv, he organised global exhibitions and collection programmes which over a short period positioned Kyiv at the heart of the international art scene. In 2007, 2009, and 2017, he was the commissioner for the Ukrainian National Pavilions at the Venice Biennale. Most recently, he curated an exhibition of Ukrainian artist Zinaida’s new videos as a collateral exhibition for the 2022 Venice Biennale which garnered accolades from both visitors and the international press.

“With my steadfast commitment to the Ukrainian art scene since 1993, I have seen the progression of both artists and institutions throughout Ukraine. I am excited about the important history and great potential the Ukrainian Museum holds and how it can be a mirror to the rich cultural activities in Ukraine. In these tragic and unsettling times - with the horrific war – the world now knows more about us, and our culture should continue to create a context for what it means to be Ukrainian today”, stated Doroshenko.

The Ukrainian Museum's first exhibition with Doroshenko as the director is Impact Damage (29 September 2022 – 8 January 2023). Future plans include exhibitions by Maya Deren, Ilya and Emilia Kabakov, Nikita Kadan, Guillermo Kuitca, Janet Sobel, Vladimir Tatlin, and Natasha Zinko.

“Peter Doroshenko possesses a unique combination of extensive museum leadership experience, expansive knowledge of Ukrainian art, and a proven record of organizing outstanding exhibitions, all of which make him ideally suited for this important role,” said Chryzanta Hentisz, president of the Ukrainian Museum’s Board of Trustees. “We have great confidence that, at this critical time in Ukraine’s history, his vision and passion will help advance the Museum’s position as one of the world’s preeminent cultural institutions”.

The Ukrainian Museum located in New York’s East Village is the largest art institution outside of Ukraine, highlighting Ukrainian art and culture for the past 46 years.

Impact Damage
29 September 2022 – 8 January 2023 (first floor)

With the exception of a few large museums in Kyiv, Lviv, and Odesa, all of Ukraine’s museums are closed. The Russian invasion has put cultural activities on hold. Mirroring a dystopian science fiction film, museums across Ukraine are in cultural hibernation: staff work from home, artworks have been wrapped and stored, and windows are boarded up. Once active and vibrant galleries sit in dark silence. The Ukrainian Museum’s new exhibition Impact Damage, meaning visible physical damage or destruction, recreates a shuttered museum somewhere in Ukraine. The galleries are filled with the museum’s collection, from paintings and sculptures to embroidered garments and historic ceramic objects. Yet there are no lights to fully navigate the exhibition; the galleries are dark and dismal. The only light comes from three large-scale, wall-sized video projections by the Kyiv-based film collective Babylon’13. The collective consists of 100 activist filmmakers, photography directors, sound engineers, producers, and editors. The group has been working together since November 2013 and is now creating short, narrative films about the current war. Their stories reflect the drama and tragedy across the country and the charged moments outside the walls of a museum in any city. This exhibition is intended to parallel and create emotional connections to what cultural institutions in Ukraine are experiencing on a daily basis.