A myriad of colours has been put up to decorate the walls of an exhibition hall at Katara Cultural Village. More than a dozen artists from Ukraine, once known as ‘global breadbasket’, are showcasing over 50 works of art, depicting the unique culture of their country.
Ranging from landscapes to abstract, portraits, digital paintings and embroidery on fabric, the diverse exhibition was inaugurated by the Ambassador of Ukraine to Qatar Yevhen Mykytenko along with Cultural Village Foundation-Katara General Manager Dr Khalid bin Ibrahim al-Sulaiti at Katara building 18 on Tuesday.
“The idea was to bring the Ukrainian artists here and to showcase their diverse work to the enthusiasts here in Doha as the art scene here is big,” Natalia Manzhali, the curator from Ukraine, tells Community at the opening of the exhibition.  
“I am working for a non-profit art organisation and our idea was to present Ukrainian art in Qatar and to tell the story of Ukraine in visuals. This is a better way than telling the story in words. This way we could show the real talent of the Ukrainian people, their energy and enthusiasm,” she explains.
Yes, they are facing some problems in their country right now but they have not forgotten their traditions. Pointing to the paintings on the walls, she says you can see all the paintings presented in this exhibition are of bright colours, hinting at symbolism.
If you look at the traditional Ukrainian art, she adds, it is also characterised by bright colours. The artists showcasing here are in fact representing their country.
“We contacted Nadia Andri here to co-curate the exhibition here together with Katara. It is important to find proper language to communicate. When you have the person who knows the people of Ukraine as well as the target audience here in Doha, it gets easy,” says Manzhali.
Nadia helped them to select the works that would be interesting for the audience here. “It was an interesting process to co-curate with Nadia here,” says the curator.
She says they had spread the word amongst the artists’ community in Ukraine and they were immediately excited with the prospects of showcasing in Qatar. They were curious to know more about the country and people here and what was most interesting about the country.
One artist for instance works in landscapes in architecture and construction and when he got to know about the construction boom in Qatar, he presented one of his works related to the very theme.
“We particularly wanted to showcase the works of Andrey Aksyutov here because he is a very interesting artist. Through his works, he is in the quest to find the perfect colour to present the Ukrainian landscape,” says Manzhali.
“He speaks in colours. It is his language. As you can see, he is working on a combination of colours here to find a perfect match to portray the Ukrainian landscape. It is charming,” she adds.
There are 17 artists from different regions of Ukraine and there are about 52 works on display. These artists are coming from different backgrounds and age groups. There are veteran artists who are members of different art associations and then there are artists who have just graduated but all of them are internationally recognised.
The media include realist paintings, abstract and digital prints among others. There is one young artist and she has sent a work which she has done especially for this exhibition.
Nadia, the co-curator with Manzhali, says they would like to bring some of the artists to Doha sometime in future. “It is interesting to see that we share many common cultural aspects. For instance, when Dr Khalid (GM Katara) was looking at one of the paintings here, he noticed many commonalties between Ukrainian and Qatari culture,” says Nadia.
Art is a common language, says Manhzil. She says you notice multiple influences from different parts of the world in an artist’s works. “We have given our own Ukrainian emotions to the pieces of art but they indeed have influences from different parts of the world including from here in the Middle East,” she adds.
The participating artists include Leonid Zaborowskiy, Alexey Apollonov, Alexander Vereschak, Alexey Malykh, Elena Priduvalova, Igor Prokofiev, Ira Tihonova, Marina Shkarupa, Marina Gorb, Viktoria Kalaichi, Svetlana Yatsenko, Andrey Aksyutov, Oleksiy Sai, Anna Vershynina, Fomichova Nadiia, Andrii Chernovil and Tamara Pluzhnik.
The exhibition is going on for two weeks at building 18 of Katara Cultural Village.