Iryna Nyavchuk
b. Dibrivka village, Ukraine 1973
y. active 2019 - present
Moon Goddess
acrylic on canvas, 23.5 x 15.8 in
Created on May 7, 2022
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See all of the works in the exhibit HERE
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At the time of painting, the artist was in the town of Cherkasy in central Ukraine. She did not have to flee and continued to work in her home.
$1,700
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.
In the early nineties, Iryna extensively studied Ukrainian folk art and has a degree in national Ukrainian carpet weaving from Vyzhnytsia College of Art and Design. In her works she is inspired by traditional motifs, giving them modern interpretation. She exhibited extensively in her native Cherkasy, took part in the abstract art exhibit in Kharkiv, and an avant-garde exhibit in Kyiv. Her works are in private collections in the United States, Canda, the EU, and Ukraine.
For this series of works Iryna draws her inspiration on an ancient Ukrainian tradition of puppet-making, called - motanka. In this tradition the puppet is made by weaving pieces of fabric and string and tying them into knots to form a puppet. Aside from being used as toys, they were revered as protectors of the household. In Ukrainian tradition motankas are only made in a woman’s and child’s image, never a man’s, always drawing on an image of mother, motherland, and a woman as a keeper of the family. Motanka in this picture is the magic of early dawn. When it is still dark, rays of light begin shooting through the darkness on the horizon turning it progressively more blue. It is a hope of a new day and that it will be better than what was before. Subconsciously, Iryna painted this at the beginning of May, when the tide of war began to turn in Ukraine’s favor.