Vlada Ralko
born 1969 in Kiev,
lives and works in Kiev.
The artist works mainly with large-scale canvasses, and also drawings. Her practice borrows inspiration from expressionist painting. Ralko often confronts intimate topics, shows various faces of female corporeality and sexuality.
“Kiev Diary” is a series of 300 watercolours and drawings created at regular intervals during the events around the Maidan in Kiev. The works become an intimate diary of the artist, her commentary on the events that unfolded for several months in the Kiev square. However, the watercolours do not offer a factual coverage of the turmoil. Their power originates rather from the attempt to capture the spirit and atmosphere around Maidan and the events that it witnessed. Hence the numerous representations of fear and the sense of being lost, the will to take refuge in the land of childhood and to forget, even if just for a moment, about what is going on outside the window. In a poetic and visually rich way Ralko attempts to understand the essence of Maidan and reach its inner logic – who is the aggressor and who is the victim of the conflict; what are the social consequences of civil war and what is the price to be paid by people who suddenly hear war banging on the doors of their homes.
