Collaborating with some of the most exciting emerging artists across the globe, The Art Unit is working to build a network of close, personal relations with artists and collectors in an ever-fractured world. Providing the opportunity to support and invest in the career of talented emerging artists, The Art Unit’s founder Mariia Kashchenko values levelling the art playing field: making it more accessible and enabling you to discover new voices.
The Art Unit’s current initiative (a new one is launched bi-annually) is a curated selection of artworks, featuring the work of 21 emerging Ukrainian artists. It is crucial, now more than ever, that these artists’ voices are heard, and their art seen. The Art Unit proactively breaks down traditionally restrictive barriers to make this possible.
There is a faint glimmer of hope amongst the works selected here. In particular, Jarolsav Leonets ‘Morning’, executed with vivid colours and lose brushstrokes proffers just this. The warm, subtle feelings of nostalgia and comfort stirred within the viewer of Leonet’s paintings continues in his soft work entitled ‘Colourful Dreams’. Leonet’s works serve as a reminder of the beauty of everyday life, which can so easily pass us by, a reminder even more poignant in the current moment.
Similarly, the work of Polina Shcherbyna reflects on routine actions and things that directly impact people’s lives, though they may not be engrained in our consciousness as significant, yet they still leave one considering what is ‘reality’ and what is ‘real’. Polina’s work is alluring, hinting at the existence of something more sinister than first meets the eye.
Nataliia Verbova is a young Ukrainian artist, currently living and working in Germany. Nataliia has deftly formed her own, individual pictorial language, characterised by fluid black lines, etching the contours of figures that somewhat resemble a human. She deploys this bulbous, amorphous figure across a number of different mediums, such as printing, video and digital art.
Mariia Shostakovska, based in Kyiv, explores the topic of what it means to be a modern woman. Her bright, colourful works depict the bright moments of life and the traces left by emotionally vivid experiences. Vivid colours and expressionistic elements are characteristic of Shostakovska’s work. ‘How to broaden the horizon of happiness if not with you’ (2017) depicts an oxblood-red figure to the right of a colder blue pool of colour, yet her face is turned to the right, gazing towards warmer tones. Through the use of colour and composition, Shostakovska conveys a profound, emotive message to the viewer.
Overall, this carefully curated selection of artworks aligns with the Art Unit’s mission: to demonstrate that great art truly knows no bounds. Alongside the selection for sale, The Art Unit’s regularly features interviews and features of the artists, offering a glimpse into their studios and creative processes, ultimately personifying the frequently impersonal process of buying art online.
Text by Olivia Wilson
