War on Distance

UKRAINIAN WARTIME POSTERS

“UKRAINIAN WARTIME POSTERS” is a charity art project created in New York, USA after Russia’s full-scale invasion of the sovereign territory of Ukraine on 24 February 2022 by a group of Ukrainian volunteers and social activists. Arthur Zgurov (Odesa), Anastasia Tsiunchik (Odesa) and Olena Speranska (independent curator and director of the international art residency BIRUCHIY, Kyiv) intended to draw the world’s attention to Russia’s military aggression against Ukraine, daily bombardments of critical infrastructure, destructions of cities and civilian casualties. The project aims to remind everyone that the brutal war continues and Ukrainians is dependent on heavy weapons to protect their homeland and to ensure the survival of the nation. Initially, the art project consisted of 150 graphic artworks created by 10 Ukrainian contemporary artists during active hostilities in Ukraine. The collection continues to grow, developing the list of participants and expanding the number of artworks. The “UKRAINIAN WARTIME POSTERS” art exhibition was already presented three times in the US: at the Blue Gallery, New York, September, 2022; the Ent Center for The Arts, University of Colorado, Colorado Springs, November 2022; the Museum of Tolerance, Los Angeles, December 2022 (during the premiere of the documentary movie “Freedom on Fire” by Evgeny Afineevsky). In February 2023 the art project was presented at the 571 Oxford Road Gallery, Reading, Great Britain.

SUPPORT UKRAINE PROJECT

All posters from the “SUPPORT UKRAINE PROJECT”, curated by Olena Staranchuk, Oleh Gryshchenko and Anna Sarvira, were made by Ukrainian illustrators after the start of the full-scale war with Russia. Some of them worked on illustrations from basements and bomb shelters, and some worked from an evacuation train. Some works were created from abroad when the artists were safe, but the anxiety for loved ones in Ukraine never left them.

Anna Sarvira is an illustrator, curator, art director and co-founder of the Pictoric Illustrators Club. She was twice included in the list of 75 best illustrators of the world at the Bologna Children’s Book Fair (2017, 2019). In 2022 she received an Adobe Community Fund grant and a scholarship from the German Academy of Arts, won gold in the “Media Illustration” category of the Joseph Binder Award and the international illustration contest “Landscapes and portraits”, organised by the Bologna Children’s Book Fair. She was shortlisted for the Nami Concourse Exhibition (South Korea) in 2018.

Olena Staranchuk is an illustrator, curator, graphic designer and co-founder of the Pictoric Illustrators Club. She received The White Raven Award (2015) and was repeatedly awarded by the Ukrainian “Best Book Design” contest (2018 – 2020). She collaborated with Ukrainian and European publishing houses and illustrated and designed over 50 books.

Oleg Gryshchenko is an artist, illustrator, curator, art director and co-founder and curator of the Pictoric Illustrators Club. He also works as a lecturer at the National Academy of Fine Arts and Architecture in Kyiv. A recipient of the Ukrainian Triennial of Book Graphics Award (2013), he was shortlisted for PinchukArtPrice (2013) and The White Raven (2015) and received the International Festival of Illustration “COW” Award (2017) and the Ukrainian Triennial of Graphics Award (2018).