The virtual exhibition of graphic design by the Kharkiv artist Mykola Lomakin "Cossack glory is immortal" is presented to the Day of the Ukrainian Cossacks and the Day of Defenders of Ukraine (October 14).
    Mykola Oleksandrovych Lomakin was born on January 11, 1967 in Kirovohrad (now Kropyvnytskyi). He lives in the city of Kharkiv, since the beginning of the full-scale invasion of the Russian Federation into Ukraine, he moved to his hometown of Kropyvnytskyi and became a volunteer.
    He received his first art education at the Kirovohrad Children's Art School, which is now called the Art School named after O. O. Osmerkin of the city of Kropyvnytskyi (1982). Graduated from the Kharkiv State Art and Industrial Institute, now the Kharkiv State Academy of Design and Arts, majoring in graphics (1996).
    Member of the International Association of Designers IAD International Association of Designers (2020). Laureate of the international award "A'Design Award & Competition", nomination "graphics, illustrations and visual communication design", award "Iron Award", Como, Italy (2020).
    Participant of all-Ukrainian and international exhibitions of book graphics (since 2010). Personal exhibitions of works were exhibited in the Artist's House of the Kharkiv Regional Organization of the National Union of Artists of Ukraine (2002) and the O.O.Osmerkin Art Memorial Museum - Mykola Lomakin's Book Graphics Exhibition "Graphic Ballads" (2012).
Works are stored in art museums, private collections in Ukraine and abroad.
    He has been working in book graphics since 2001, in close cooperation with publishing houses of the city of Kharkiv, he created original illustrations for printed publications - works of Ukrainian and foreign writers: Yaroslav Yarysh "Blood Revenge", Walter Scott "Ivanhoe" and "Talisman or Richard the Lionheart in Palestine" , Robert Louis Stevenson "Suicide Club", Jules Verne "Around the World in 80 Days" and "Mikhail Strogov", Astrid Lindgren "Carlson Who Lives on the Roof", James Fenimore Cooper "Red Corsair", Louis Buscenard "Under the Southern Cross", Daniel Defoe's "Life and Extraordinary Adventures of Robinson Crusoe", Nicolas Vanier's "Staying Alive", as well as Ukrainian folk tales and children's encyclopedia books.
    Book graphics is a special direction in fine art, which includes a fairly wide range of knowledge in various spheres of human cultural activity: general history, history of costume, architecture, weapons, tools, perfect mastery of fonts and symbols of ornaments, various graphic techniques. All these qualities are inherent in Mykola Lomakin's works, that is why they are distinguished by decorativeness and imagery, careful attention to details and high graphic culture. These very artistic characteristics of the graphic artist became the basis for his cooperation with Kyiv-based Monetnyi Dvir "Kniazhyi" LLC - creating the design of commemorative medals of "Heroes of Cossack Ukraine" and other design projects.
The exposition of the exhibition consists of computer graphics design projects by Mykola Lomakin from the series of commemorative medals: "Heroes of Cossack Ukraine", "Outstanding figures of Cossacks" and "Girl-Ukraine", executed in 2020-2022.
    This is how the graphic artist Mykola Lomakin himself characterizes his personal exhibition in the thematic booklet, compiled by Andriy Nadezhdin, a leading researcher of the museum and Honored Artist of Ukraine:
    "I knew that in the fall of 2022 I would return to my native Kropyvnytskyi with another exhibition and that it would take place in my favorite place - the Oleksandr Osmerkin Memorial Art Museum. But I could not imagine that this exhibition would take place on the background of the Russian-Ukrainian war with thousands of human suffering, incredible, heroic resistance and an indomitable desire to defeat the enemy. With all my body and soul, I felt myself an inseparable part of my Ukrainian people. Everyone's pain is my personal pain, and the desire to win is my personal desire. After the black 24th of February, my main desire is to help people, to do everything possible to speed up the victory.
    The exhibition that I am presenting is called "Immortal Cossack Glory" and presents my design projects: "Girl-Ukraine", sketches of the mini-series "Outstanding figures of the Cossacks", as well as 15 (out of 24 planned) sketches for a large series "Heroes of Cossack Ukraine" and three already issued medals from this series, which were created for the company Monetnyi Dvir "Kniazhyi" LLC from October 2020 to May 2022. The sketches were to be used for the production of commemorative medals, as the company is an official distributor and manufacturer of commemorative medals and collector coins. Unfortunately, due to the state of war in the country, these projects are temporarily suspended. But I hope that the time will come when everything will recover and we will finish the good work and start working on new projects.
    At the end of September 2020, the marketer of Monetnyi Dvir "Kniazhyi" approached me with a request to create an image of the Girl-Ukraine for minting medals. A similar image can be found on the coins of many countries - Liberty (USA), Libertad (Mexico), Britannia (Great Britain), Virgin Polonia (Poland), Marianne (France). All these allegorical images of the symbol of freedom have an antique form. This emphasizes that modern civilization and democracy originate from the time of ancient Greece. And since we, Ukrainians, are now returning to our European identity, the image of the Girl-Ukraine, in my opinion, should have a connection with antiquity, emphasized by Ukrainian symbolism. In particular, such symbols became: the wreath on the head of the Maiden-Ukraine, assembled from viburnum, wheat, oak leaves - traditional, legendary symbols of Ukrainian poetics, as well as state symbols. But the main thing was to find a characteristic appearance that reflects the inner essence of the Girl-Ukraine. To create so that, looking at her, it was immediately clear that she is Ukraine, with the characteristic features of a young beauty, self-confident and indomitable, firm character. And in a month, the image of the Girl-Ukraine was completed.
    In April 2021, I started working on a project called "Heroes of Cossack Ukraine". I needed to develop the design of the medals - front and back sides, i.e. obverse and reverse, as well as draw portraits of hetmans and chieftains of the Ukrainian Cossacks. It was planned to release a series of 24 personalized medals dedicated to the most prominent characters of the Cossack era. The era of the Cossacks, which covers the period of existence of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, the Hetmanship, and Zaporizhzhia after the Hetmanship, captivated my consciousness and feelings with the brightness of characters in the whirlwind of historical events, so I worked with enthusiasm, delving into the historical time of the marvelous Baroque era. I managed to draw 15 images. The latter whom I drew was hetman Pylyp Orlyk, in fact the founder of the first Ukrainian Constitution, already here, in Kropyvnytskyi, in May 2022.