Artem Humilevskyi

Humilevskyi started working on his new series entitled Roots after the beginning of the full-scale invasion. In this work, he continues the journey to discover his inner self that he embarked on in the previous series, Giant. In Roots, the artist ponders the same subject but takes a different perspective: he looks at himself as part of a community and tries to find a new means to unite people, not based exclusively on the concept of nation. He offers images of a new ideology that are rooted in his fantasies, revealing subconscious spiritual symbols and showing the ways in which they are subtly ingrained in all of us.

The display of this work mimics a chapel where the lyrical hero, i.e. the artist himself, is looking at the viewer from above, assuming the role of the creator God. Humilevskyi’s whole practice could be viewed as a journey to find his inner essence, with the author learning to love himself along the way. By making self-portraits and using nudity as a tool, he celebrates an unapologetic self-acceptance and finds freedom in it.

Acknowledgments to Sergey Melnitchenko.