“Stone Hits Stone” A solo exhibition by Nikita Kadan
The PinchukArtCentre (Kyiv, Ukraine) presents “Stone Hits Stone” by Nikita Kadan, made in the context of the PinchukArtCentre’s Research Platform. His first major solo exhibition in Ukraine presents both new produced and existing works reflecting on Ukrainian history, political violence, national historical heritage, avant-garde and Soviet utopia. This exhibition deals with present day challenges in its inextricable connection with the past, using history to enlighten the present and imagine the future.
Stone Hits Stone is the first major solo exhibition by Nikita Kadan in Ukraine and his largest solo exhibition to date. It is a celebration of an artist who has created over the last 14 years a vibrant international career while influencing and supporting many Ukrainian artists. For the PinchukArtCentre, Nikita Kadan is just the third Ukrainian artist in 15 years represented with a major solo exhibition. He follows in the footsteps of the two other monuments: Sergey Bratkov and Boris Mikhailov. This landmark exhibition follows a long journey of collaborations since 2007. Kadan showed twice in the PinchukArtCentre Prize (winning it in 2011), twice in the Future Generation Art Prize (once as a member of REP), took part in the exhibition Fear and Hope and presented his works in five other group exhibitions. Therefore, not without pride, we celebrate Nikita Kadan with this exhibition, marking history while dreaming of the future.”
The exhibition opens with a “flashback” expressed as an intuitive artistic and historical reflection mainly through the works of those who are seen as the Ukrainian avant-garde. It accentuates Kadan’s use of the historical past, in the form of ideologies, art and acts of political violence.
Permeating the entire exhibition are historical events, objects and designs that Kadan re-interprets with regard to present-day pressing need to resist geopolitical failures, imperialist aggression and far-right ideologies.
Stone Hits Stone is never about “history as it really was”, it is a motive that flashes up in the moment of danger, and it enlightens our present and directs us towards the future.
On the occasion of Nikita Kadan’s solo exhibition, the PinchukArtCentre will publish in early March 2021 an online book, “Stone Hits Stone”. The collected texts by Uilleam Blacker, Bjorn Geldhof, Kateryna Mischenko and Kateryna Yakovlenko will elaborate on history and memory, art interpretation of the past and violence as well as actualisation of the avant-garde legacy today. The design is by Aliona Solomadina. The book will be available on the PinchukArtCentre web page in English and Ukrainian.The exhibition opens with a “flashback” expressed as an intuitive artistic and historical reflection mainly through the works of those who are seen as the Ukrainian avant-garde. It accentuates Kadan’s use of the historical past, in the form of ideologies, art and acts of political violence.
Permeating the entire exhibition are historical events, objects and designs that Kadan re-interprets with regard to present-day pressing need to resist geopolitical failures, imperialist aggression and far-right ideologies.
Stone Hits Stone is never about “history as it really was”, it is a motive that flashes up in the moment of danger, and it enlightens our present and directs us towards the future.
On the occasion of Nikita Kadan’s solo exhibition, the PinchukArtCentre will publish in early March 2021 an online book, “Stone Hits Stone”. The collected texts by Uilleam Blacker, Bjorn Geldhof, Kateryna Mischenko and Kateryna Yakovlenko will elaborate on history and memory, art interpretation of the past and violence as well as actualisation of the avant-garde legacy today. The design is by Aliona Solomadina. The book will be available on the PinchukArtCentre web page in English and Ukrainian.
Björn Geldhof
Curator
Artistic director of the PinchukArtCentre
Kateryna Iakovlenko
Assistant curator
Researcher and curator of Public Programs of the PinchukArtCentre
Dana Kosmina
Exposition architecture and design
Victory Over the Sun and Sun and Satellite are produced with the help of Voloshyn Gallery.
Vasyl Yermilov
Sketch for Monument to the Lenin Era, 1961
Watercolour and graphite pencil on paper
Sofia Nalepynska-Boychuk
“Pacification” of Western Ukraine, 1930
Woodblock print on paper
David Hofstein, Marc Chagall
Troyer
Kyiv, Kultur-Liga. 1922
Viktor Palmov
In the Village (Horse Taming), 1927
Oil on canvas
Nikita Kadan
Tiger’s Leap, 2018
Iron
Manuil Shekhtman
Jewish Pogrom, 1926
Tempera on canvas
Vasyl Yermilov
Red Ukraine, sketch for the painted design of a campaign train, 1919
Watercolour on paper
Vasyl Yermilov
Painting of the train Red Ukraine, 1921
Photography
Ivan Padalka
Decorated plate reading: “I am proletarian Mamay, beware of me, you bourgeois, back off”, 1923
Porcelain
Vasyl Yermilov
Edition of Bilshovytsky Zasiv, cover sketch, 1920–early 1930s
Indian ink on paper and appliqué work
Nikita Kadan
The Inhabitants of Colosseum, 2018
Sound sculpture based on the audio document of a public performance on the Stone Bridge in Regensburg, video and photo documents, description texts.
Nikita Kadan
Victory, 2017
Plywood, plaster and white paint
Nikita Kadan
The Spectacle of Unorganized Masses, 2018
Photography
Nikita Kadan
Chronicle, 2016
Ink on paper
Nikita Kadan
Pogrom, 2016
Charcoal on paper
Nikita Kadan
Sun and Satellite, 2020
Iron, neon
Nikita Kadan
From the series Broken Pole, 2019–2021
Iron, print on silk
Nikita Kadan (born 1982)
Victory Over the Sun, 2020
Iron
Nikita Kadan
Spectators, 2016
Charcoal on paper
Nikita Kadan
Coal of the Donbas (Yermilov—Braque), 2021
Charcoal on paper
Nikita Kadan in collaboration with Dana Kosmina
Lysa Hora Architecton, 2021
Plasterboard, wood, lightbox
Nikita Kadan
Everybody Wants to Live by the Sea, 2014
Photography, gouache, graphite
Nikita Kadan
Anonymous, Tarred, 2021
Marble, wood, plastic, resin
Nikita Kadan
The Inhabitants of Colosseum, 2018
Sound sculpture based on the audio document of a public performance on the Stone Bridge in Regensburg, video and photo documents, description texts.
Nikita Kadan
Future in the Past, 2021
Charcoal on paper
Vernissage
At the exhibition you can use audio guide Explainit which provides you with a unique opportunity for an individualized visit to the exhibition and get to know the stories behind the works.
The exhibition will be open from February 27 to August 15, 2021. Admission is free