14 June – 12 July 2023

The creation of an image begins quite simply: the base of the future object is carved on a potter's wheel, and then metamorphoses occur – joining, twisting, forming a large mass from small forms. Victoria Dromaretska emphasizes the interaction of volume with space. Color, as a rule, plays an important role, putting an end to the artistic search and dominating the form. 

The exhibition presents various series of the artist's works, which somehow reveal the artist's inner world filled with emotional waves or, rather, excitement: joyful in anticipation of summer, or anxious in anticipation of news. It would seem impossible to embody the waves of mobile communication, summer sea ripples in ceramics, but the artist manages to do it. Intricate interweaving, piles of mass, cutting off the excess, repetition of the same forms, or completely unexpected modifications of familiar things – all of this is present in her "phones", "fishes" and abstract objects.

Electromagnetic and radio waves deliver news, give us fleeting peace, albeit only for the duration of a conversation, and connect us with family and friends. It is these feelings that Victoria Dromaretska has embodied in her phone sculptures. With the beginning of the full-scale invasion, these works acquired additional meaning and began to be perceived more acutely. The war year changed the lives of Ukrainians and gave all aspects of everyday life a new meaning. Even the banal opportunity to communicate with relatives became a value in times of occupation, emigration, lack of electricity... The feeling of closeness to your loved ones can be restored by making a call, because in reality they are only a "wave" away.

The Black Sea theme also appears in her work for a reason. The artist's family is from the Kherson region, so it is not surprising that in some works emerald watering can sparkle, the faces of the sculptures resemble Greek korai, and the amphora jugs cluster together to form a metaform never seen before. The past intersects with the present, and they work together in its objects, creating relationships between ancestral craftsmanship and the latest technologies.

Curated by: Olexandra Ryzhova.
Project team: Olena Borymska, Galina Istomina, Oleksandra Kabakova, Iryna Khomenko.

Full ticket price is 100 UAH.