NEW YORK, NY.- Art at the Institute is pleased to announce New Perspectives: 8 Contemporary Artists from Ukraine, a selling group exhibition, presenting works in different media by artists in the forefront of current art practice in Ukraine. Organized in cooperation with Mystetska Zbirka Gallery (Kyiv, Ukraine), New Perspectives is curated by Dr. Walter Hoydysh of The Ukrainian Institute together with Max and Julia Voloshyn of Mystetska Zbirka Gallery. The exhibition will open December 1 and remain on view through December 20, 2015. An opening reception will be held on Friday, December 4 from 6-8pm.

Today, Ukraine supports one of the most dynamic and visible art scenes in Eastern Europe. Young Ukrainian curators participate and contribute programming at international art symposia and biennials, and new commercial galleries and non-profit institutions proliferate. These platforms cultivate lively critical and public discourse, affording artists and like-cultural practitioners a comprehensive presence in the prevailing contemporary landscape. Its new generation of artists is highly trained in traditional art theory and execution, yet is acutely aware of contemporary domestic and global concerns. New Perspectives presents select Ukrainian artists preferring self-developed techniques to produce critically recognized signature works from paintings on canvas to digital renderings — employing pop-inspired iconography, national identity, gender, environment, and fantasy.

Exhibiting artists include Mikhailo Deyak, Tatyana Malinovska, Mykola Matsenko, Roman Minin, Stepan Ryabchenko, Oleg Tistol, Anna Valieva, and Artem Volokitin.

Addressing the broader Ukrainian cultural context, critic Tanya Rzhondkovska states, “I think we don’t need to follow the West and try and catch up with them, because we will never catch up … we have another way of thinking about art. Our artists must find their own way, although they are well-acquainted with their own as well as Western and Eastern traditions, past and present. There are different economics at work in this country (Ukraine), so there will be and should be different ways of thinking about art, its making and relevance on the global stage.”

The artists presented in New Perspectives actively exhibit throughout Ukraine and Western Europe, have participated in recent editions of the Venice Biennale (Tistol, Volokitin), Sao Paulo Biennial (Tistol), Art Copenhagen (Minin, Volokitin), Art Monaco (Deyak), Art Kyiv (Minin, Ryabchenko), collected affiliations established with the Pinchuk Art Centre (Kyiv) and Saatchi Gallery (London), and continue to see their artworks command respectable results at Phillips, Sotheby’s and Christie’s auction sales in London and New York. Their artworks are housed in private and institutional collections throughout Ukraine, Eastern and Western Europe, South America, Canada, China, and the United States.

A fully-illustrated catalog published in conjunction with the New Perspectives exhibition will available.