After 63 successful projects, we presented contemporary Ukrainian art in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, for the first time. The exhibition “BIRD” was held with the support of the Embassy of Ukraine in the UAE and was dedicated to the profound symbolism of the bird as an embodiment of freedom, spirit, and inner will. The project attracted significant interest from the international community.
The official opening, held on January 30, was attended by more than 100 distinguished guests, including representatives of the diplomatic corps, the business community, and the cultural elite.
The exhibition was opened by:
Khrystyna Berehovska — Director of ZAG Gallery, Doctor of Art History, Professor at the Lviv National Academy of Arts;
Oleksandr Balanutsa — Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of Ukraine to the United Arab Emirates;
Sheikha Somayeh Noor — Founder of Noor Royal Gallery, philanthropist, investor, and entrepreneur.
It was a great honor for us to welcome the Sheikh Noor couple at the opening. Mrs. Somayeh Noor is one of the most influential figures in the region and the first Arab woman to establish one of the largest private art collections in the world, valued at approximately one billion dollars. Her collection includes works by Frida Kahlo, Claude Monet, Pablo Picasso, Diego Velázquez, Camille Pissarro, and other world-renowned artists.
Why the Bird?
The answer is simple. As a nation, Ukraine possesses a deep cultural history reaching back thousands of years. Across historical eras, Ukrainian culture has often been associated with the symbol of the bird — an image of the spirit striving to transcend the limits of the visible world and approach truth. The bird in flight signifies choice, risk, and responsibility for freedom.
Structure of the Exhibition
The exhibition was conceptually organized into five thematic sections, each reflecting different narratives and meanings.
Freedom is represented in the works of Oleksii Syniuk, whose birds embody the desire to transcend the limitations of body and society. In his triptych Hypnosis, for example, we see a female-bird figure entering a meditative state on the threshold between the real and the surreal.
The Soul resonates in the works of Taras Haida, where the bird becomes a formative symbol detaching from the body and reaching toward the transcendent — a metaphorical connection between the human and the cosmos. His compositions reveal fragmented corporeality and imperfect environments in which “someone” searches for “someone.”
The Bird as Mediator Between Worlds — living on earth and in the sky, a bridge between the visible and the invisible — appears in the works of Ihor Nekrakha and Roman Opalynskyi. Nekrakha’s landscapes present a cold, corporeal “Ukrainian sky,” dangerously veiled with invisible enemy drone patterns, while living birds hover above the land as heralds of longed-for safety.
Roman Opalynskyi, in turn, constructs folkloric-epic visual dramas in which humans, birds, and phantasmagorical figures intertwine. His use of gold and heated palettes intensifies emotional tension and narrative depth.
The Bird as Omen and Intuition emerges in the works of Artur Soletskyi, where human-bird hybrids appear as black warriors of light — prophetic beings capable of existing among both the living and the dead, through whom truth is interpreted. Symbolic stone bullfinches by Ihor Bereza act as messengers of resilience and strength; bullfinches travel vast distances and endure harsh weather, making them symbollic of qualities such as courage and endurance.
The Final Category — The “Solitary Thinker.”
Here the bird becomes an image of the philosopher — detached from the crowd, focused inward, an observer from above. Such contemplative figures appear in the works of Burenko and Anastasiia Vlasenko.
Freedom as Meaning
Why is it important for the world to see contemporary Ukrainian art through the symbolic image of the bird? Because it expresses our will and our desire for freedom — even at the highest cost.
A telling moment occurred during the exhibition “Our Christmas in Ukraine.” A five-year-old boy, looking at a painting of winter birds that appeared to be crying, asked his mother why they were sad. He answered himself: the birds had no chicks because an “enemy boy” had shot them with a slingshot on their tree. He concluded: no one has the right to climb someone else’s tree or invade another’s territory, because it leads to many dead birds and many tears.
The moral is simple: everyone has the right to fly freely under a peaceful sky in their own home. No one can take away our freedom.
Thus, the exhibition “BIRD” at Noor Royal Gallery demonstrated how Ukrainian artists were, for the first time, presented on the same stage as world classics — through the universal language of symbol, understood across cultures.