WARHOL'S RELATIVES is Ya Gallery Art Center's Special Project at ART MOSCOW 2012 that took place in Central House of Artists (september 19 - 23).

Curated by Pavlo Gudimov

In search for inspiration contemporary art casts a glance at the past. Exploring the interrelation between the talent and the land, WARHOL'S RELATIVES presents works of the artist from the most mythologized region of the country - Western Ukraine. The "pan-Ukrainian" phenomenon formed here as a result of cultural and historic transformations contributed to emergence of a specific worldview that was significantly influenced by modern cult personalities of Ukrainian origin.

It was a reference to the pop-art genius's, Andy Warhol's (Andrew Warhola's), biography that incited "genetic" discoveries. He came from a family of Rusyn emigrants that spoke Ukrainian and went to Greek Catholic church all their lives. By linking Warhol's creative genius to his ethnic motherland - Western Ukraine - the project emphasizes its unique status of an "intermediary" between the other parts of the country and Europe. Past mixing of cultures and traditions gave birth to a powerful exotic cultural layer and mentality that are reflected through art in a harmonic combination of drama and self-irony, pathos of form and light kitsch.

However, without being attached solely to the ethnic origin, the project draws attention to Andy Warhol's metal affinity with contemporary Western Ukrainian artists that manifests itself in striking similarity of techniques and approaches, symbols and images, plots and even literal quotations. Each author of the project studies details of Andy Warhol's biography, his behavior and artistic vision, finding material for their own art in his versatile personality. Iryna Kalenyk bases her videos on Warhol's directing method, observing, like he did, domestic nuances and human behavior in everyday life. Principles of art replication and work with symbols of mass culture "relate" Warhol to the works of Mykola Matsenko, Stanislav Perfetsky and Stanislav Silantyev. The theme of death which became on of the main topics in his art after the attempt on his life, is analyzed in Volodymyr Kostyrko's and Eugene Ravsky's paintings.

Search for parallels occurs on different levels - from domestic to artistic and philosophical, which allows to track both direct and still undiscovered influences of Andy Warhol's cult personality on the creative consciousness of Western Ukrainian artists.

Ya Gallery Art Center expresses sincere gratitude for help in organizing the project to Oleksandr Kamenets, Pavlo Martynov, Eugene Tatarynov, Larysa Mudrak.