In collaboration with the Sorry No Rooms Available residence, we are presenting Oleh Perkowsky's first solo exhibition in Kyiv entitled Drawflowerswaters. The exposition includes graphic works created by the artist at the residency in 2023–24. However, there will also be a void—instead of the last work that Oleh has been working on for the past two months specifically for the show. The work was put on hold in early July when the artist was mobilised by the Uzhhorod Territorial Recruitment Centre to the Armed Forces of Ukraine. Today he is undergoing military training.
“In the project Drawflowerswaters, the author raises the issue of the subject crisis both in art and during the Russian-Ukrainian war. At the SNRA residency, Oleh recalls a conversation in 2012 with Paweł Jarodzki, who gave an example of the artistic practice If You Don't Know What To Do, Draw Flowers. Continuing this conversation about the crisis of the artist in the present, in particular in the context of Zakarpattia region culture and beyond, Oleh artistically works on visual, cultural and economic aspects. It is worth recalling the packaging of mineral waters in the 90s in the Svalyava district, which businessmen bought in large tanks and packed in branded one-and-a-half-litre bottles somewhere in Irshava. And a different culture of using these bottles as alternative containers for the home-made Carpathian wine Isabela.”
Petro Ryaska
“Exactly one year ago, I was lucky enough to take part in the legendary Sorry No Rooms Available residency, which has been curated by the artist Petro Ryaska and has been operating in the Uzhhorod hotel Intourist–Zakarpattya since 2016. During the full-scale invasion, the residency became a nationwide shelter for artists from all over Ukraine, including those from the occupied territories. It allowed many to stay in peace and safety not only from the fighting but also from daily rocket attacks and air raids. I was there at the time of my greatest personal despair—my best city on earth, Kyiv, became a stranger to me, I lost my entire close circle of friends, and The Naked Room gallery lost part of the team and most of the artists and collectors. I didn't see any point in continuing this business, so I decided to take a break for myself. At that time, there was probably no better place for me than "sunny Zakarpattia". It was still Ukraine, but so summer, calm, and warm.
There, I was immediately enveloped by the acceptance and love of the local community—Uzhhorod classics and residents from all over the country. Together with Petro Ryaska, Oleh Perkowsky, Serhiy Dyachenko, Yulia Manukyan, KAR, Mykhailo Melnychenko, Attila Hazhlinsky and Pavlo Kovach Sr. we were side by side, talking about art and pain, cooking delicious food, drank Shayanska for breakfast, danced passionately, counted planes on the balcony of the perfectly modernist Intourist Hotel, and wandered around the city day and night! It was there that I began to see art and meaning in my own work again. It was then that Petro Ryaska and I decided to organise several joint resident exhibitions in Kyiv. And the first one, without a doubt, should be Oleh Perkowsky's Drawflowerswaters, because it captures the state of insecure security that brought many of us back to life.
For me, this exhibition is about the experience of living in Ukraine with all its mythologies and losses. Looking at the fantastic landscape of the Carpathians, redrawn from the legendary labels of Zakarpattia mineral waters, it is impossible not to think about the lost steppes of Kherson region, the fields of Luhansk region and the Crimean cliffs. At the same time, these works contain so much warmth, attention and labour that the seemingly ironic gesture of transferring a non-existent Ukrainian paradise from a commercial facility to an art space speaks rather of a sincere love for this beaten but not broken country. I have a tradition with a few friends: when we return from a business trip to Ukraine, we buy a bottle of Polyana Kvasova and send it to each other as a postcard. And thanks to Oleh Perkowsky, we now have something more than postcards.”
Maria Lanko
“This is a somewhat escapist project, which is being worked on during russia's war against Ukraine, at a time when almost all artistic subjects are imbued with war. Drawing landscapes from Zakarpattia mineral water labels refers not only to the relative peace in this region of Ukraine but also to the loss of a significant part of the natural landscape and fauna in the North, East, and South of the country.
The virtual world of mineral water labels takes us back to an idyllic pre-war state, and the tension comes with the realisation that Ukrainian nature continues to be destroyed by russian combat missiles and is at risk of continuing to exist only in various images. Specific drawings of landscapes have a horizontal, which, unlike the vertical, cannot provide absolute peace.”
Oleh Perkowsky
