Young art in Ukraine is still seen by many in the country and abroad as a kind of message to the world, or at least a desire to generate one: a message about its “novelty,” being “world class,” whatever that  means, and a message that forces this art to adapt to the universal market of culture. However, some of us can challenge this disposition by adopting a negative stance towards the global situation in art today. Consider the declining relevance of traditional cultural centers, those who once enjoyed the comfortable seat of their “‘geo/meta position’” now find the chair knocked out from under them. Communication has shifted to the Internet, turning the traditional megalopolis into a village with all its off-line institutions. The commercial populism of the Museum is another obstacle for the honest global artist to overcome. For many, this spells the end of the positivist post-Cold War era, among others.

The exhibition OUTarky / For Us By Us is a brief look at a heterogeneous group of Ukrainian artists with diverse practices, who express a certain level of introverted autonomy, oppose the genre’s dictatorship and act with some degree of indifference to their careers.

Artists:
Ksenia Bilyk
Jan Blok
Miška Bočkariov
Andrij Bojko
Jura Kanevsky
Jura Kudrik
Dima Tolkačov
Ihor Okuniev
Vova Vorotniov

Curators: Vova Vorotniov and Janek Zamoyski

Photos above:Dima Tolkačov