The All-Ukrainian Biennale of Levkas

On September 28, 2023, the exhibition of the Third All-Ukrainian Biennale of Levkas opened at the White World Center of Contemporary Art in Kyiv. 126 artists who share a love for levkas as an artistic material, technique, and philosophy took part in the exhibition.

In the framework of the past Biennale, sacred art was not exhibited, as there was a clear separation of the secular from the sacred. Still, this year, the exhibition organizers decided to accept the participation of all the artists who submitted applications - thus, within the framework of the Third Biennale, sacred and secular art were united. What's more, this year, the holy and spiritual part prevails - in the war conditions, many people turned to spiritual themes and classical Ukrainian motifs and art forms. Both according to classic ancient recipes and with the latest materials and mixtures, the creation of levkas works requires painstaking work, ingenuity, and a fine sense of relief, texture, and plasticity from the artists. Thus, levkas becomes a plastic mass that includes different ways of thinking and freedom and remains an essential element of Ukrainian modern art. Artists use this technique to create modern interpretations of icons and other works of art, combining traditional techniques with an innovative approach. Levkas becomes the same visual tool as line, stain, and color. It allows you to create a volume, to go out of the plane towards the reliefs.

In the works of Ukrainian artists, such as Valerii Shkarupa, Oleksii Malykh, Maryna Afanasieva, Dmytro Kryshovskyi, Oleh, and Oleksandr Denysenko, levkas was and remained an important part. This soil became the basis of the unity and continuity of the artistic tradition from the Middle Ages to today.

Among the 126 participants are well-known Ukrainian artists and young, promising artists. According to the organizers, most submitted works not only meet the criteria of the Biennale but are also made by professional artists with high skill. Attention to beginners working with levkas will contribute to nurturing Ukrainian naive art, which is now getting stronger and asserting itself in its rightful place, both in the past and present. The White World Contemporary Art Center and other galleries continue to collect evidence of the war, and most of the Levkas works submitted were created in Ukraine in 2022-2023. Thus, selecting some works and rejecting others could distort a section of the current state of Ukrainian levkas art, making the final picture incomplete.

According to the organizers, holding the Third Biennale of Levkas became a challenge for the organizers in war conditions, when both gallerists and artists faced many obstacles in their activities. But maintaining the tradition and meeting with old friends, as well as the opening of the Biennale's debutantes, became the values that gave determination to organize the next competition. At the grand opening of the exhibition, the winners of the Biennale were announced, special awards were given to the authors of the most exciting works, and a catalog was presented, where all the works and appeals of the organizers of the Biennale to Ukrainians who care about levkas art were printed.

The exhibition will be held until October 15 at the address of 21a, Evhena Chykalenka St.

The author of the text
Art critic and art manager of the Imagine Point gallery
Tetiana Safir