Ksenia Hnylytska
Ksenia Hnylytska (b. 1984, Kyiv) lives and works in Kyiv and Munich. She graduated from the National Academy of Fine Arts and Architecture in Kyiv in 2009. In 2002, Hnylytska co-founded the Ukrainian artist group R.E.P. and she continues to participate in their numerous exhibitions, projects, and activities. She also works as a curator and is a member of the multidisciplinary collective Hudrada. In 2008, she was a fellow of the LIA-Leipzig International Art Program. Hnylytska’s practice, in which painting is a primary medium, deals with social issues. Her works have been exhibited in numerous venues, including the National Art Museum of Ukraine and the Visual Culture Research Center in Kyiv.
News from the Future
2022–2023,
Banners, hung from the ceiling
For Ksenia Hnylytska, possible futures become visible through the classical mode of prophecy. In a series of printed banners that combine watercolor paintings with dig- ital text, Hnylytska aims to build techno-utopias and ideal societies based on snippets of contemporary facts, some gathered from social media. Manifestations of many such visions appear to have emerged since Hnylytska began to engage with this specific predictive practice after the start of Russia’s full-scale invasion. In most of her work produced since then, mainly ceiling-hung, large-scale banners, Ukraine’s destiny appears akin to the peaks of a distant iceberg – superstructures that suggest untold substructures, hidden but at the same time quite profound. «The project started back in Ukraine. It was created by combining what I had with me – a travel watercolor set and a mobile phone. By simply superimposing text on the images, I was thinking about a new, utopian world and a kind of patriotic futurism.» (Ksenia Hnylytska)
Augarten Contemporary, hoast, IG Architektur, Laurenz, Neuer Kunstverein Wien, Never At Home, Waffen Franz Kapfer, New Jörg, Ve.Sch
October 17–December 17
Main Exhibition
Curators: Serge Klymko, Hedwig Saxenhuber and Georg Schöllhammer