Ukrainian Guest Artist 2023: Yevheniia Kriuk
In her work, Yevheniia Kriuk aims to challenge traditional notions of beauty and desire by presenting a queer and feminine perspective on sexuality that is rooted in nature by using plants and flowers as material.
Following the Russian invasion of Ukraine on 24th February 2022, people’s perceptions in Ukraine have changed. A peaceful, carefree life can no longer be taken for granted. The absence of sirens in Yevheniia Kriuk’s current environment at Künstler:innenhaus Bremen means the absence of an alarming but grounding sound for her, that provokes awareness of mortality: “Being abroad, I’m usually afraid of loud noises, planes or salutes. As a refugee in Germany I was trying to cope with bureaucracy. Considering that I was lost, depressed and shocked, I was terrible at it. I depicted my state with naive drawings on German documents.” Yevheniia Kriuk has continued the paintings she created during her escape from war, bureaucracy and her return to her home in Kyiv in the guest studio of the Künstler:innenhaus Bremen.
Yevheniia Kriuk (b. 2001 in Kyiv, Ukraine), is a visual artist engaging through photography, drawings and installations. From 2018 to 2019, she studied architecture at the National Academy of Fine Arts and Architecture in Kyiv. Between 2020 and 2022, she studied fine arts at the Borys Grinchenko Kyiv University. Kriuk is a member of the MYPH Group and the Ukrainian Women Photographers Organization. In 2022, she was a guest student at the University of the Arts Berlin and had a residency at the MRO Foundation in Arles, France. She participated in exhibitions in Ukraine, the Netherlands, France and Germany.