Denis Cherniy
b. Chyhyryn, Ukraine, 1987
y. active 2018 - present
TV Head
patchwork (pieces of fabric sewn on cloth), 31.5 x 50 in
created on May 23, 2022
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See all of the works in the exhibit HERE
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​At the time of creation, the artist was in the city of Chyhyryn in central Ukraine. He had to flee Kyiv, leaving his recently purchased apartment in Irpin near Bucha.
$2,500
sold/private collection
All proceeds go to help artists in Ukraine and to foster US-Ukraine cultural ties and cooperation. Please use Contact Form or see restaurant staff if you are interested in purchasing.
One day Denis was watching a Russian blogger asking random people in Russia what they think about the war. What he heard was a certain set of phrases coming from every person. He felt like they were all zombified. In this work, most of the people are not related to each other. They have no feet and are led aimlessly along the black line - the only thing giving them direction. Russian propaganda is continuously coming at them from their television sets where their heads have already turned into malfunctioning TVs. The first two are gone and have nothing but militaristic fervor and white noise inside. The third lady has something akin to a test pattern, possibly showing that she is still trying to regain her personality. A little girl at the end still has her pink childhood dreams with her but even they are already poisoned or replaced by the program. The older TV models with antennae are also a reference to Russian soldiers maraudering TVs from Ukrainian houses as if they do not have good modern TVs at home.
Denis is a trained stonemason and tile layer. However, when his friend decided to start a clothing brand and open a store in Kyiv, Denis offered to make a patchwork art piece to hang in the store. He took pieces of fabric that were left over from his friend’s production and created his first piece. Shortly after, he made another for a second store and felt that he was enjoying the process. Several more works followed, one of them was Jedi Master Yoda, which was stolen by the Russian army when it occupied the area to the north of Kyiv before being repelled by Ukrainian forces. Now, his works have already traveled to private collections in Canada and the US.