Calgary art gallery to showcase new works from Ukrainian artists

An exhibition of work by Ukrainian artists who have resettled in Calgary opens Thursday at the Collector's Gallery of Art in Inglewood. There's a free reception with live music performed by Ukrainian musicians between 5 and 9 p.m. Above: Your Wrinkles, Oleg Arkhanhorodsky, Carbon Print on Hahnemulhe bamboo Paper - 20” x 30"

A Calgary art gallery is launching a new exhibition ripped from the headlines Thursday.

The Collectors' Gallery of Art is hosting an evening opening of an art exhibition and silent auction in support of a group of visual artists and musicians who recently arrived in Calgary from Ukraine.

Titled UKRAINE, the exhibition includes paintings, watercolours, mixed media art, video art and photography from nine Ukrainian artists.

Some of the work includes documentary images of soldiers, civilians and urban landscapes of cities by Kharkiv-based photographer Oleg Arkhanhorodsky, who is still in Ukraine embedded with soldiers fighting against Russia.

The images presented in the exhibit, says gallery owner Romana Kaspar-Kraft, "reflect the grief and violence of war, and the vitality of contemporary Ukrainian visual culture."

"There's some real talent here," Kaspar-Kraft said, adding that 100 per cent of the funds raised from the sale of the art in this exhibition and the silent auction will go to all the participating artists and musicians performing at Thursday's opening.

For Kaspar-Kraft, there's an added emotional resonance to the show: she came to Canada in 1968 as a refugee from Czechoslovakia, after it was invaded by the Russians.

"I remember the struggles my parents had not speaking any English," she said, "Trying to find work, and the feeling of isolation in a new and bewildering country."

There's a reception at the gallery from 5 to 9 p.m.Thursday night. The exhibition and silent auction continue through Sept. 3.

The artists participating in the exhibit include Arkhanhorodsky, Daniil Chukalin, Elena Faushteyn, Oksana Kaida, Maria Mykhalap, Kateryna Prysarenko, Daria Shemyakina-Akderli, Cristina Stasja, Hanna Zakharchenko and Andrii Zahorodniuk.

Musicians performing at the opening reception include Kateryna Kovalchuk, Anna Lupeko, Iryna Melnyk-Kalinovich and Yaroslav Hershun.

The Collectors' Gallery of Art is located at 1332-9 Avenue S.E.