First and foremost the contemporary art attracts its aficionados with momentary reflections of the processes, that take place in the society today. Its second attribute — which is first of all important for the collectors, — is that in the contemporary art ‘classics’ are relatively recent works, usually about 15 or 20 years old. Namely, this “young” and therefore still contemporary works were the aim of the project aptly named “Contemporary Classics”. This exhibition, that was on the view at the Zenko Foundation art space on the premises of the hotel complex “Koruna” from the 31st of June to the 30th of September of 2016, included works mainly from the collection of the foundation. We firmly believe that to remain truly relevant, the works of contemporary art must live a full life, and not just gather dust in the vaults. The paintings, sculptures, and photography must be constantly exposed — only this way, they will meet their own viewers. And the viewers can discover the contemporary art. The “Contemporary Classics” aimed to showcase the different genres and movements of Ukrainian fine arts during the last 20 years, the evolution of artists, who today belong to the classics and the rise of new generations of the artists.
Co-founders of Zenko Foundation
Yana and Zenko Aftanaziv
The exhibition is based on the works from the collection of Zenko Foundation, that numbers more than two hundreds of works of the most prominent contemporary Ukrainian artists. The exposition includes more than 50 of them. They were created by 25 Ukrainian artists at different periods, with some of the works now becoming the classics of contemporary Ukrainian art.
The exhibition includes both the pieces by mature artists and the works of young promising authors. The goal of the project is to demonstrate the alteration of the generations in Ukrainian art, and the evolution of different movements and genres — a sort of a snapshot of contemporary Ukrainian art from the last 25 years. The exhibits include paintings, sculptures, graphics and photography.
Zenko Foundation was established in 2015. The main mission of this art institution is to support and promote contemporary Ukrainian art. The collection of Zenko Foundation includes more than 200 works of contemporary Ukrainian art. The debut project of the foundation was the exhibition “Contemporary Ukrainian Art. From Private Collections” (October 2015-March 2016, hotel complex “Koruna” art space). In April of 2016 in Zenko Foundation art space in the Carpathians started the second project “Kylym. Contemporary Ukrainian Artists”. The project was established as all-Ukrainian and after its launch in the Carpathians during the year was travelling to Lviv and Kharkiv. The main directions of development for Zenko Foundation are the exposition program that involves exhibitions at the venues of Zenko Foundation, and supporting Ukrainian artists in prominent local and international projects, contemporary art auctions; and the publishing program, that aims to inform the public in Ukraine and abroad about Ukrainian art-process. In April of 2016 the foundation took part in a publishing project “Ukrainian Art Book”. In May Zenko Foundation became the official partner of the “Gala Europe” concert, that was organized during the Days of Europe in Ukraine with the support of Italian Culture Institute in Ukraine and was dedicated to the celebration of the 70th anniversary of Italian Republic. info@zenkofoundation.com www.zenkofoundation.com zenkofoundation @zenkofoundation
Curator Oleksandr Solovyov
PR Yulia Kuprina
Project coordination Adrian Aftanaziv
Design Serhiy Fedynyak Logistics Artur Antonenko
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Zenko Foundation