How Ukrainian gallerists Voloshyns represented Ukraine at Art Basel Paris

The Ukrainian Voloshyn Gallery, together with the Parisian gallery La Galerie Poggi, is presenting the works of Ukrainian contemporary artist Nikita Kadan. Dozens of foreign and Ukrainian artists, journalists, creators, and businesspeople gather around the stand of the Voloshyns, Julia and Max.

Nikita Kadan's works consistently attract attention and are in high demand.

The exhibition consists of eight canvases and two installations, with prices starting at €3,500 for the charcoal drawings. The most significant work, «Shchekavytsia,» a canvas measuring 300 by 385 centimeters, will cost its future owner €120,000.

According to Jérôme Poggi, founder and director of La Galerie Poggi, who is organizing this year's stand together with Voloshin, Nikita presents war not as most Europeans are accustomed to seeing it, through images of explosions or destruction in the press or evening news, but through details and emotions. He tells the story of the war through the personal suffering of nameless people, yet at the same time, they are so close to us. He tells about the war through the suffering of animals trapped by the circumstances around them. He tells the story of the buildings where these people once lived.

The centerpiece of Kadan's exhibition will be his work from this year, «Shchekavytsya,» which depicts an orgy on a well-known hill in Kyiv. It is a continuation of a famous internet meme joking that Russia will launch a nuclear missile at Kyiv, and Kyiv residents will gather on the hill to have an orgy. It is a kind of farewell to the earth and the fulfillment of secret desires, like a last earthly pleasure.

This post-apocalyptic work by a Ukrainian artist can be considered a modern interpretation of the classic romantic French painting by the outstanding artist Eugène Delacroix, «The Death of Sardanapalus.»

Kadan's work «Shchekavytsya» can be considered revolutionary.

According to the legend of the classic work, the Assyrian king was unable to suppress the rebellion against him and decided to end his life. After ordering the killing of his horse, dogs, and women, he decided to enjoy the last moments of his life by organizing an orgy. I observe as Jérôme Poggi, speaking to a visitor, a stately woman interested in Kadan's works, emphasizes, «Delacroix's painting was revolutionary for its time, and Kadan's painting can be called the same.» The potential customer has noticed two of his minor works.

She is just one of thousands of visitors who have stopped and will continue to stop at the Ukrainian gallery corner.

Tired of information about the war in Ukraine in its classical sense through the press, art can become a voice that directly or indirectly reminds the world about us. About our experiences, our animals that also die and suffer from the war, our secret desires, thoughts, or fears.

In recent years, Ukrainian gallery owners have only increased their influence abroad. According to Forbes Ukraine, during the war, foreign museums and institutions have acquired dozens of works by contemporary Ukrainian artists. Ukrainian gallery owners have begun to appear more and more often at international exhibitions and expos, but Yulia and Maxim Voloshin remain the most prominent.

This year, the Voloshyns were also represented for the first time at the prestigious Frieze Art Fair in New York, where they presented works by Nikita Kadan.

However, such dedication to the arts not only increases the Voloshin family's business volume and Kadan's fees, but also helps Ukraine be heard.

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