From October 23, ZAG opens a new chapter — “THE SEA”
Zenyk Art Gallery presents the exhibition “THE SEA” — a new large-scale project in collaboration with the Odesa National Fine Arts Museum , What unites 110 works by 65 Ukrainian and European artists from the 19th to the 21st centuries. The exhibition features works by Arkhip Kuindzhi, Kyriak Kostandi, Lev Lagorio, Rufin Sudkovsky, Mykola Hlushchenko, Oleksandr Roitburd, Serhiy Ryabchenko, Oleksandr Postel, and others.
As is already a tradition for the gallery, the project focuses on a specific theme, explored through a dialogue between “old” and “new” masters. The gallery space will also include special installations by contemporary artists.
One of the core visions of Zenyk Art Gallery, which we continue to uphold, is close collaboration with national museum collections. The gallery has previously worked with the Kyiv-Pechersk National Reserve and the Kharkiv Art Museum, showcasing rescued and rarely seen works within the format of a modern private gallery.
The new project “The Sea” continues this mission: for the first time on such a scale, works from the collection of the Odesa National Fine Arts Museum — evacuated during the war — will be exhibited in Lviv. Among them are pieces by the renowned Ukrainian seascape painter Ivan Aivazovsky.
“We aim to carry out an internal decolonization of Ukrainian art — to 'liberate' the names of our artists from the layers of imperial tradition. Not Repin, but Ripyn; Aivazovsky and Kuindzhi — Ukrainian artists who have been appropriated by the enemy for decades. This is another crucial part of our mission.”
The exhibition features around 160 works by Ukrainian and European artists from the 19th to the 21st centuries.
The exhibition “THE SEA: see beyond the sea” is structured around 9 thematic sections:
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Where does the Ukrainian sea begin?
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The Sea of Nationalities
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The Sea of Struggle
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The Sea of the Everyday
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The Sea that Engulfs the City: Ecological Catastrophes
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The Sea of Loss — both on the sea and of the sea itself
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The Sea of Solitude
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The Sea of Love — Between the Storm and the Calm
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The Sea of Emotions: Women — Dawns and Sunsets
By unveiling these nine thematic dimensions of the exhibition, we once again enter into a dialogue with art — this time focusing on the phenomenon of boundaries, or their absence: spatial, temporal, emotional.
“This exhibition is about depth and the absence of limits. And the form — real or imagined — is something each visitor will define for themselves,”
— says Khrystyna Berehovska, director and curator of ZAG.
The exhibition “THE SEA” is open from October 23, 2025, to February 1, 2026, at Zenyk Art Gallery.
The artworks are insured by the insurance company UNIQA Ukraine under the supervision of the insurance agent Aon Ukraine
