UKRAINE EXHIBITION

The Collectors’ Gallery of Art is honoured to present an exhibition of works by 10 Ukrainian artists who have recently arrived in Calgary from their war-torn homeland. Included in this exhibition documentary photographs by the Kharkiv based photographer Oleh Arkhanhorodsky (b. 1997).

The exhibition will include a silent auction of donated work by many The Collectors’ Gallery artists, and clients. 100% of the funds from the exhibition and silent auction will go directly to the participating Ukrainian artists and musicians.

Exhibition opens: August 24th, at 11:00 am. Reception: August 24th 5:00 – 9:00pm. View the exhibit, meet the Ukrainian artists and the musicians who will be performing during the reception. Exhibition and silent auction will continue through to September 3rd at 4:30.

Please click on the image to view full image and description.

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Oksana Kaida - Sunflowers, Watercolour - 15.7” x 20.8”

Daria Shemyakina-Akderli - "Bakhchisarai street",, oil on canvas - 15” x 23”, 2010

Kateryna Pysarenko - Spirits of the Steppe

Elena Faushtein - On Uranus, mixed media - 12” x 16” $ 800

Hanna Zakharchenko - "Love", 24x24, Canvas | oil, 2023

Andrii Zahorodniuk - A Long Time Ago, 23.7” x 35.4”

Oksana Kaida - Still life, Watercolour, soft pastel - 20.8” x 28.3”

Cristina Stasja - Kharkiv, acrylic on canvas - $ 1,000 framed

Mariia Mykhalap - "The nude of soul" 24” x 36”

Elena Faushtein - Fetters, mixed media 22” x 22” $ 3,400

Hanna Zakharchenko - “A bouquet of cornflowers”, Canvas|oil, 32x27, 2023

Oksana Kaida - Lake Tahoe, Sierra Nevada, USA, Watercolour - 15.7” x 20.8”

Elena Faushtein - Life, Mixed media - 50” x 27” $ 4,500

Daria Shemyakina-Akderli - "Summer", oil on canvas, 33” x “23, 2008

Daria Shemyakina-Akderli - “Balaklava", oil on canvas, 17” x “25, 2011

Hanna Zakharchenko - “Lilies”, Canvas|acrylic, 32x27, 2023

Oksana Kaida - Robin Hood's Bay, Yorkshire, UK, Watercolour - 15.3” x 20.4”

Hanna Zakharchenko - "Faith", 24x24, Canvas | oil, 2024

Daria Shemyakina-Akderli - “When The Day Comes, The War Will End”, oil on canvas - 25” x 27”, 2023

Mariia Mykhalap - "Symphony of Waves" 31” x 47”

Hanna Zakharchenko - "Hope", 24x24, Canvas | oil,

Daria Shemyakina-Akderli - "Millet", oil on canvas, 15” x 15”, 2021

Oksana Kaida - Landscape of Tuscany, Italy, Watercolour - 15.7” x 20.8”

Andrii Zahorodniuk

Andrii was born in village called Kryve Ozero, South Ukraine, in September 1998.

He started drawing from childhood, in the art school in Kiev. Later he continued his study in Sviatoslaw Brachnow Realistic Drawing Academy (with the teacher from Academy of Fine Arts in Kiev) where he start learning realistic drawing. In 2017 he started his study in Jan Matejko Academy of Fine Arts in Krakow, Poland. It was his dream and nightmare because on the one hand he open other creative disciplines such as photography, design, line cut, lithography, serigraph printing, etc. But on the other hand it was hard to feel freedom after a classical academic shool in Ukraine.

In his art he trying to find shapes and colour when you feel the harmony of honouring polarities.

Daria Shemyakina-Akderli

Daria Shemyakina-Akderli, loving wife and mother of three children, was born in 1983. In art, I often pursue one goal: to catch the viewer’s attention and to amaze them with the depth and uniqueness of the usual and its unnoticed details. I love to paint simple things that enrich our lives: а cat washing himself, a flock of geese, a thoughtful look of a lamb, peacefully sleeping children, a fog descending on the mountains, or just pears lying on a table. For me these are opportunities to show beauty in the small charming things and share them with the viewer.

Children, became for me an inspiration as I searched for new themes and styles. During this period I create canvases for private collections, and also I studied various pictorial techniques of the famous masters by copying their works.

Dnepropetrovsk Theatеr & Art College in class of master Antonyuk L.A., graduated 2004

Master’s degree in the National Academy of Fine Arts and Architecture, graduated 2010

As a result of many years of study and practice, after a number of solo and group exhibitions, I was able to place my works in many private collections in Ukraine, Russia, Canada, Great Britain, Czech Republic, Australia, USA, China, and Italy. Some of my work is in collections of The National Museum of T.G.Shevchenko, National Academy of Fine Arts and Architecture of Ukraine, and The Art College in Dnepr.

Elena Faushteyn

When I was a child, I began to show creative ability but I was against standards of formal art education. However, I attended painting classes where I could express myself more freely.

I have already experienced living in four countries (Moldova, Ukraine, Turkey, Canada) in different cultures and travelling around the world. Being a mother of two sons and having stored up plenty of emotions and experience, at the age of 36 I finally began my development as an artist. I was eager to do art innovation and started to create art objects in my own way. My artistic specialty is using uncommon stuff and recyclable materials. It usually takes quite a lot of time to construct harmonious art objects with versatile materials to make the audience be surprised, inspired and filled in with energy. My works are based on my own emotions and feelings. The aim of my art is transformation of one’s personality.

For the last years, besides creating paintings and pictures, I have taken part and fulfilled myself in different art projects. I attended private painting classes, illustration and neurography courses, psychological trainings, right-hemisphere painting training sessions, I learned symbolism, astrology, human design. Moreover, I attended singing classes.

Hanna Zakharchenko

She was born in 1986 in the city of Sumy, Ukraine. ow lives and works in the city of Calgary, Canada

Artist statement: “The study of the world as a subject of God’s creation pays special attention to the law of duality in the study of its phenomenon. Transferring the world of metaphysical images to the canvas using the professional language of the artist. It is a study of the human-nature-creator connection, interrelationship of artificial and natural, perfection, the absorption of the inorganic world by nature, the opposition of man-personality-nature-instinct, and a study of human duality through the prism of the theory of divine creation.

I am fascinated by exploring the world of the duality of God’s creation, the extremes of beauty and horror, vitality and mortal danger, the thin edge of the ideality of the laws of life in our universe, and Man-creator and consequences.”

Kateryna Pysarenko

Kateryna Pysarenko (Ukrainian, b. 1987) is an artist who obtained a master’s degree in graphic design from Kyiv (Ukraine). With over 10 years of experience as a designer, she has specialized in creating prints for clothing and tableware. Since 2020, her focus has shifted towards the watercolor medium. She has been living and working in Calgary, Canada, since May 2022.

As an artist, she explores the impact of the external world on the internal, merging psychology with art. Her mission is to convey that peace and tranquility can be found in ordinary moments and objects, where everything can become a talisman and a source of strength. Furthermore, she strives to demonstrate that one doesn’t need to wait for something more beautiful than life and the objects around us. Each artwork embodies a compassionate story about how, despite the imperfections of the world and ourselves, happiness can be found by everyone.

Mariia Mykhalap

Since I was a little Child, I’ve been drawing and painting, and it’s been a journey of pure joy and discovery. It led me to pursue my dreams, I graduated at “Crimean Art College by Samokish” and I graduated as an artist and art teacher.

Back in my hometown of Yevpatoria, nature was like a boundless muse for my art. The town sat by the sea, and every wave, every sunset, seemed like a masterpiece waiting to be painted. My desire was simple – to translate this beauty onto canvas, to share with the world what I felt when I looked at the world around me.

And now, since I moving to Calgary this past winter, a whole new palette of nature’s wonders has opened up before me. But no matter where I am, the desire to capture the beauty of the world remains the same – a timeless inspiration that guides every brushstroke.

My favourite style of painting is realism, where I can capture the tiniest details of the world around us, but I also love to add a touch of abstraction to create a unique blend that brings out the beauty in unexpected ways.

The heart of my artwork lies in showcasing the beauty of the world around us. From serene landscapes to captivating portraits, I want to bring wonder to the viewer’s life.

Oksana Kaida

HIGHLIGHTS OF QUALIFICATIONS
Watercolour painting
Soft pastels painting
Creation for individuals and group study programs of drawing, painting, and composition
Preparation for admissions to art colleges and universities
Vocational trainings in various techniques ( watercolour, pastel, acrylic coal, ink etc.)

WORKING EXPERIENCE:
Art Instructor in Private College of Art in Cherkasy, Ukraine 1998-1999
Interior Decorator and Designer, Ukraine 1999-2018
Floral design company in Poznan, Poland 2018-2022
Art Instructor in Private Academy of drawing and painting in Poznan, Poland 2021-2022
Art Instructor and Owner of Private Art School in Calgary, Canada 2023

EDUCATION:
Art school of drawing and painting in Cherkasy, Ukraine 1980-1984
Art Industrial Technical School in Kyiv, Ukraine 1985-1989
National Academy of Art in Lviv, Ukraine 1991-1997
Floral design school in Poznan, Poland 2018-2019

LANGUAGES:
Ukrainian (Native)
Russian
Polish
English

Oleh Arkhanhorodsky

I was born in 1997 in Kharkiv, Ukraine’s second largest city by size and population, 35 kilometers from the Russian border. It is where I live now. I started taking photos and filming in 2020, mostly portraits, art-nu, and event videos. Despite the fact that my family was affected by the war at its very beginning (in 2014, my grandparents lived in Donbas), there was no war depicted in my works at that time. The situation changed on February 24, 2022. I didn’t question myself on what to do with the beginning of the full-scale invasion. On the contrary, there was a clear understanding that I had to photograph something else. Almost immediately, along with volunteering at a military hospital, I began to document the destruction of yesterday’s peaceful and carefully maintained streets, the pain felt by people whose homes were hit by war and the extremely difficult and often terrible work being done by the military. Before the war, I had no experience of working on the front lines, no first aid skills, no ability to recognize by ear which kind of projectile was flying overhead. Now that a year and a half has passed, and home is sometimes an abandoned house in the Donetsk region, these vivid images and way of life are now with me in my heart and in my mind and will remain a part of me forever and I know I must continue to photograph.

Cristina Stasja

Cristina Stasia was born in Lviv, Ukraine. She studied at the Lviv National Academy of Arts, specializing in the Faculty of Art Glass. She completed her Master’s degree as well.

The teachers at the Academy of Arts had a significant impact on me. The drawing and composition instructors introduced me to various techniques, taught me to see art in everything – relief, texture, composition.

Living in the historical city of Lviv, with its architecture and ancient history echoing the Middle Ages, is a continuous source of inspiration. Everything about it inspires me.

However, after the full-scale invasion of Russia on free Ukraine, as I witnessed Russian atrocities killing the Ukrainian people, my heart aches for Ukraine’s cultural heritage. They are destroying entire cities, erasing them from the face of the earth. My soul is torn apart. This is why my shattered soul strives to convey the pain every Ukrainian experiences.

I’ve created paintings titled ‘Outcry Mariupol’s’ and ‘Outcry Kharkiv,’ where through my works and video installations, I aim to show the tragedy that unfolded in these cities due to extreme cruelty, indescribable heart-wrenching pain, and the hatred that envelops my heart. These paintings represent the state of every Ukrainian soul! They are the outcry of every Ukrainian soul, longing for others to feel what we went through, even though not everyone experienced it. I want everyone to see and momentarily live through…

This is a global tragedy unfolding in the 21st century. Countless works could be created about it.”