Milan hosts the first Italian solo exhibition of Ukrainian feminist artist Iryna Maksymova

From September 19 to November 9, 2024, Antonio Colombo Arte Contemporanea gallery in Milan presents Landscape’s Body, the first solo exhibition of Ukrainian artist Iryna Maksymova (Kolomyia, 1991) curated by Ivan Quaroni. Through her paintings and hand-woven tapestries, the artist explores themes of feminism andnational identity by overlaying these concepts in an aesthetic inspired by outsider art. Her works investigate the landscape not only through the iconography of the female nude, but also through a bestiary composed of both domestic and wild animals, often depicted as sentient creatures or protective spirits.

A native of Kolomyia, a town in Ukraine ’s Prykarpattia province characterized by the presence of a strong tradition associated with folk painting, Iryna Maksymova is interested in Ukrainian folklore by developing a figurative language that manages to link evocations of the past with the present. The title of the exhibition Landscape’s Body refers to the wounds and changes that the Ukrainian territory suffered as a result of the war with Russia. In her works, Maksymova uses simple neo-primitivist language drawing inspiration from the feminine phonetics of terms such as “Country” (країна) and “Ukraine” (Україна), as well as from the female personification of the “Motherland” depicted in the de-Sovietized monument at the site of historic Kiev.

“With my figurative and naïve artworks,” says Iryna Maksymova, “I give voice to world problems that affect me personally and try to promote equality and interconnectedness, at the same time developing traditional motifs of Ukrainian folklore into new visual forms.”

Notes on the artist

Iryna Maksymova was born and raised in a small town in the western part of Ukraine called Kolomyia. In 2013 Maksymova graduated from the graphic design department of the National Polytechnic University in Lviv. She began her artistic journey in 2020 with her first solo exhibition in Lviv. Since then, Maksymova has participated in several group exhibitions in Ukraine and around the world, including New York (2022), London (2022), Madrid (2022), Beijing (2022), Los Angeles (2021), and Berlin (2021).

Milan hosts the first Italian solo exhibition of Ukrainian feminist artist Iryna Maksymova

Warning: the translation into English of the original Italian article was created using automatic tools. We undertake to review all articles, but we do not guarantee the total absence of inaccuracies in the translation due to the program. You can find the original by clicking on the ITA button. If you find any mistake,please contact us.