UFDA Showcases New Additions by Polina Shcherbyna, Nickita Tsoy, Ola Yeriemieieva, and Pavlo Bedzir

UFDA is thrilled to announce the expansion of its digital catalogue with a remarkable selection of works by prominent Ukrainian artists. This latest update includes the works of Polina Shcherbyna, Nickita Tsoy, Ola Yeriemieieva, and Pavlo Bedzir, each of whom brings a unique voice and vision to the art world.

Polina Shcherbyna is a Ukrainian artist whose primary medium is painting. Whether through monochrome images on linen canvas or pyrography and carving on wood, her practice always connects back to painting and its foundational principles. The central theme of Polina Shcherbyna's art, serving as the core from which other subthemes branch out, is corporeality. 

The artist engages with the expanded concept and perception of painting, presenting it as an object that reflects on iconography and the aesthetics of the temple. The artist interprets the artwork as a double view of the world of the fall of the Anthropocene idea.

Recently, UFDA digitized two works by Polina Shcherbyna, including Something about a dead bird and Columns of Times. 

“In the visual basis of the 'Something about a dead bird' series, I create images from photographs of dead birds that I have been photographing on the streets of different cities and countries for the past last years. In this way, I form reflections on death, how it has changed before our eyes, dressed in the armor of a socio-political context, it has turned into cold statistics and counts of the dead and wounded.

I think about how a collection of pain builds up over a lifetime, and how humanity adapts to any degree of pain. Perhaps soon there will be nothing left that can touch our souls. Because wartime as a matter always tries to return man to the animal world, putting the goal of “survival” in the first place. In the iconographic tradition, the bird is a symbol of the holy spirit. By depicting a dead bird, I indicate the death of the spiritual, interweaving the two different concepts of spirit and spirituality with the image of death, thus sacralizing death,”  Polina said.

"The columns of time stand motionless, guarding their square meter of earth, their cubic meter of air. The rammed plant strives to grow through the wounds that have already become the talismans of everyone who is able to feel. The plant can become a miracle cure or sharp blades, but only time will tell. Before the time, humanity still remains helpless in its desire to know the future.

The legs of a giant is an irony over the finale of the Anthropocene, it is an exaggeration of the importance of a person who inspired humanity so much, it is an eternal wanderer who has lost himself in the time of a cyclical history of violence," the artist explains.

Nickita Tsoy is celebrated for his exploration of identity, memory, and historical narratives through painting, installations, video art, and sculpture, with painting as his primary medium. Rooted in cynical realism, his works critically examine the construction of history in a post-ideological era, addressing themes of self-acceptance, dissonance, and ideological consciousness, reflecting his unique perspective on modern social, political, and cultural issues. 

The artist views the individual as a vessel of ideological consciousness, examining their inner foundations and the tension between self-acceptance and internal dissonance. His work, rooted in cynical realism, offers a critical perspective on social, political, and cultural issues, with painting as his primary medium.

UFDA has expanded its catalogue with one more work from Nickita Tsoy’s series “Suits”. The artist uses pastel on paper to create drawings for this series of works. 

Ola Yeriemieieva is a multidisciplinary artist, born in 1997 in Kyiv. Her work engages with themes of corporeality, death, loss, and memory. Her art mainly focuses on the fear of loss and the effort to preserve what remains or reimagine what has been lost, influenced by the deaths of close friends during their youth. This theme extends to their contemplation of fleeting memories and fragile connections, often portrayed with a sense of urgency. 

The loss is perceived not only as an end but as a transformative process, where rethinking and materializing absence becomes a form of resilience. War, as a symbol of loss, deeply informs their practice, particularly through the experience of temporary displacement and the fear of erasure.

UFDA has extended its catalogue by another work from Ola Yeriemieieva’s "Body Returning Attempts" Series. As UFDA’s curator Alya Segal noted, in this series, the artist continues to reflect on the transition of a person back to life through the body of a tree. 

“People who have been violently killed on battlefields or at home due to the Russian military invasion of Ukraine are trying to connect with trees to restore their subjectivity. In Yeriemieieva's drawings, people-trees are given a timorous corporeality.

This series demonstrates the artist's exceptional attitude to the human body and corporal wounds. The feeling of collective pain is graphically reflected in anthropomorphic figures that stand between death and life,” Alya wrote.

Pavlo Bedzir was a renowned Ukrainian artist and philosopher, celebrated for his contributions to graphic art and his exploration of Eastern philosophical themes in his work. His work transcended traditional art, blending visual symbolism with spiritual and intellectual reflection, and emphasizing the internal structure and philosophical interpretations of natural forms.

In his creative work, Bedzir explored nearly all stages of global avant-garde movements, including Impressionism, Expressionism, Cézannism, and Cubism. The tree always remained the foundation, the vertical axis of his artistic thinking. However, the artist also created numerous other works, including "Op-Art. Pocket-Sized Format" Series, Compositions, and Studies.

UFDA is proud to have digitized Pavlo Bedzir’s drawing Untitled (1960s), created using a ballpoint pen on paper. 

Pavlo Bedzir's art initially focused on realistic painting but later shifted toward the realm of graphic symbolism. Influenced by Christianity, as well as Western and Eastern philosophies and various religious traditions, his worldview was deeply enriched by the study of renowned philosophical works.