Vlada Ralko IMMINENT AMONGST FORGOTTEN*

* "...under certain stimulating circumstances the forgotten becomes imminent..." (Paul Ricœur, Around Politics) Voloshyn Gallery is proud to present a solo show The Imminent Amongst Forgotten of the renowned artist Vlada Ralko, showcasing her works from different periods. The exhibition features works from the series Signs, Reality Envy and Twins, as well as canvases that don’t belong to any particular series. The artist explains that she selected materials for the exhibition based on the absence of alienation she often feels towards her “old” works. She singled out certain works to take another look at them from the vantage point of passing time. “I don’t find attempts to reveal crucial evidence in the past, or to review that which slipped our attention, all that nonsensical. Most of the selected works were created while I worked on cohesive series or during breaks between series, as standalones. And, to the contrary, I ‘pulled’ other works out of their context to shear all ties with the unifying theme. This way, I wanted to draw attention to elements that got overshadowed and marginalized by the central theme of the series. The selection criteria were no longer contingent on quality, chronology, impact or importance of any given stage: I framed these works as a standalone sequence informed by what matters to me right now. In point of fact, it is the opposite of a retrospective exhibition,” admits Vlada Ralko. Whereas the artist’s primary field of interest used to be body as such, she chose works where “the fleshly seems to have left the body and is scrutinizing what’s left from the sidelines” for the exhibition. “It was of the essence to find in my own works from several years back the revelation of the exilic atmosphere where mankind is divorced from everything, including its own body, of that ambiguous rift in which mankind knows not how to define itself in the world. Now, when the signs of humanity wander homeless, alienated from their very selves, and risk being crushed by utilitarian logic, I wanted to reclaim or develop the ability to recognize amongst the boundless chaos of used up and devalued identities the common denominator or feature, the readiness for live action, something akin to a chance to exonerate humankind.” The show’s exposition is laconic, and Vlada Ralko’s works are not meant to entertain. “Almost all works are created in an expressive, high-contrast, saturated palette and represent deformed chunks of female bodies with hypertrophied sexual characteristics; they are often so misshapen that a human figure morphs into abstract blots, the bloody pulp of exquisite expansive brushwork. Ralko paints a lot and doesn’t give her viewers much thought, but their reaction remains symptomatic of an entire range of post-Soviet problems of self-identification (the material that the artist works with, and that became unprecedentedly topical during the Russo-Ukrainian conflict),” notes Asia Bazdyrieva, a scholar of contemporary art and culture. The art scholar argues that Ralko is one of the strongest artists in contemporary Ukrainian history. Candidly, without kowtowing to either the viewers or the institutions, her works transform the very Other, whom we, the dwellers of the ruins of the empire who are just beginning to grasp the paucity of self-identification, cannot yet reconceptualize. Vlada Ralko was born in 1969 in Kyiv. She graduated from the T.H. Shevchenko Republican Comprehensive Art School in 1987, and from the National Academy of Fine Arts and Architecture (the workshop of Professor V.Shatalin) in 1994. A member of the National Union of Artists of Ukraine since 1994. Ralko’s works are extensively exhibited both in Ukraine and abroad. Lives and works in Kyiv. Voloshyn Gallery was founded in 2006 by spouses Max and Оulia Voloshyn called Mystetska Zbirka Art Gallery. It is located in the cultural and historical center of Kyiv on the street Tereschenkivska. Voloshyn Gallery - gallery of modern and conceptual art, is a platform for artistic experimentation, research and social projects. The mission of gallery: popularization of Ukrainian art in Ukraine and abroad. Max and Julia Voloshyn actively represent Ukrainian art abroad, facilitating its integration into European cultural processes. In February 2014 Max and Julia presented the project "Ukraine. The archetype of freedom" in Vienna in cultural and exhibition center Novomatic Forum. There were shown the works of 15 Ukrainian artists who embodied in in their works the principle of freedom. In April 2015 at the initiative of the gallery the first Ukrainian art tour to the island of Cyprus called MAKE ART NOT WAR was organized. The project was attended by seven leading artists who presented their views on war and peace in Ukraine and in particular the historical context of the whole. In 2015, Maxim and Julia organized the project of Ukrainian artists in New York, which took place in the Ukrainian Institute of America. In June 2016 Ukrainian gallery represented the artists at SCOPE Basel; the most prestigious art fair Art Basel in the world. In the same year it represented Ukraine at the Art Basel Week in Miami during the SCOPE Miami Beach fair. Max and Julia Voloshyn actively support contemporary young Ukrainian artists and collect their works. In 2015, Max and Julia entered the top 30 Ukrainian collectors according to Forbes and became the youngest in this ranking. In the same year, Max and Julia came in a rating of Ukrainian Forbes: 30 successful Ukrainian, who are younger than 30. Voloshyn Gallery Kyiv, 13 Tereschenkivska Str., entrance through the arch, the 2nd yard. +38 050 136 47 37, +38 044 234 14 27 www.voloshyngallery.com Please join the conversation with Voloshyn Gallery on Facebook (@VoloshynGallery), Google+ (@+Voloshyn Gallery), Instagram (@VoloshynGallery), Artsy (@Voloshyn Gallery) та через хештеги #VoloshynGallery, #галереяволошиних, #VladaRalko