Ganna Kryvolap: Paintings

NEW YORK – The Ukrainian Institute of America is pleased to announce Ganna Kryvolap: Paintings, an exhibition comprised of twenty-eight works on canvas. In this, her first exhibition at The Ukrainian Institute of America, the Kyiv-born Ms. Kryvolap will show three distinct series of paintings: Horizons, Wells and her newest, Ribbons. The exhibition will run from September 25 through October 10, 2015. An opening reception for the artist will be held Friday, September 25, 6 to 8pm.

With a deliberate choice of emblematic subject and medium — in each presented series — Ms. Kryvolap’s intuitive self-styled course of painting reconnects with landscape, architecture, and folk components, transcending the apparent opposition between abstract and figurative art. For the artist, figuration does not mean the picturesque or accurate depiction of a location, but primarily light, space and the elements. The application of her color-rich palette fills each shape on canvas with lively fervor and intense energy, spontaneously celebrating the physical art-making process.

Critic Halyna Skliarenko observes, “Ganna Kryvolap’s painting continues the tradition initiated at the beginning of the twentieth century by Henri Matisse, who dreamt of pure harmonious art devoid of excess details and narrative, the art able to reproduce by unsophisticated means the feeling that could bring a weary man serenity and joy.”

A graduate of the National Academy of Fine Arts and Architecture in Kyiv, Ganna Kryvolap actively participates in gallery exhibitions and fairs in Ukraine and abroad. Her works are found in the American Embassies Collection, National Museum in Zaporizhia (Ukraine), MOYA/Museum of Young Art, Vienna, as well as private collections in Europe and the US. Ms. Kryvolap currently lives and works in Sarajevo (Bosnia and Herzegovina).

The Ukrainian Institute of America, Inc. is a nonprofit organization dedicated to promoting the art, music and literature of Ukraine and the Ukrainian diaspora. It serves both as a center for the Ukrainian-American community and as America’s “Window on Ukraine,” hosting art exhibits, concerts, film screenings, poetry readings, literary evenings, children’s programs, lectures, symposia, and full educational programs, all open to the public. Founded in 1948 by William Dzus, inventor, industrialist, and philanthropist, The Ukrainian Institute is permanently housed in the Fletcher-Sinclair mansion at 2 East 79th Street and Fifth Avenue. The building is designated as a National Historic Landmark and protected as a contributing element of the New York Metropolitan Museum Historic District.