Art exhibition-performance "ARTshelter for artists" is the second exhibition within the museum art project "Art Studios-2022" on the theme: "Portraits of contemporaries on the background of war". The exposition is dedicated to the memory of painting professor Oleksandr Osmerkin on the occasion of his 130th birthday (December 8), Honored Artist of Ukraine Andrii Nadiezhdin, who suddenly passed away on October 19 this year, and Ukrainian soldiers who gave their lives defending freedom , independence and territorial integrity of our country.
    Due to the full-scale invasion of the Russian Federation into Ukraine, millions of Ukrainians found themselves under martial law. But the history of mankind shows that even under such circumstances creative life never stops, because even in the darkest hour there is always a ray of light, and art can be a weapon against the enemy.
    Implementing the "Art Studios" project on a theme determined by life itself, the museum actually became a kind of art shelter for artists, where they work creatively and give birth to new ideas, communicate and warm each other's souls in difficult times of superhuman trials. The chief curator of this project was Andrii Nadiezhdin, a leading researcher of the museum, a professional art critic, and an honored artist of Ukraine. and figuratively reflect them, suppressing one's own thoughts and feelings, full of doubts and at the same time confidence in the victory of light and good. Therefore, it is his graphic work "War" from the "Chronicles of the New Middle Ages" series, created on March 29, 2022, that is reproduced on the poster of the exhibition.
    The exposition of the exhibition, located in the basement of the museum, which is currently used as a shelter during an air raid, consists of more than fifty works of the participants of the art project "Art Studios-2022" - Kropyvnytskyi artists of the Honored Artist of Ukraine Andrii Nadiezhdin, members of the National Union of Artists of Ukraine Liudmyla and Oleksandr Demydenko, Iryna Kukharenko, Olha Kolomiets, head of the fine arts department of Olha Krasnopolska Children's School of Arts, Oleksandr Kyrianov, teacher of O.O.Osmerkin Art School, artists Nataliia Kornilova and Yuliia Tarasova, photographer Oleksandr Shuleshko and artists from other member cities of the National Union of Artists of Ukraine Hryhorii Vovk from Odesa and Anna Baranova from Kharkiv.
    The original is the presentation of creative works, in particular, the format print of small-sized original drawings by the Honored Artist of Ukraine Andrii Nadiezhdin from the series "Chronicles of the New Middle Ages" and "Mysteries of the New Middle Ages" and Olha Krasnopolska's "Graphic Series from a Red Sketchbook", as well as computer graphics Natalia Kornilova and Oleksandr Kyrianov.
    Attractive highlights of the exhibition are installations of memorial items from the Pauchenko-Osmerkin house - a decorated table, carved doors, a forged lantern and an easel from Oleksandr Osmerkin's workshop, on which a photo tablet with the image of the artist is placed, which was exhibited in the central hall, because the museum itself is now in the shelter, because the exposition was dismantled in order to preserve paintings and other rare objects. Emotional tension is created by constructions from podiums, various lighting, a video series of animated author images, musical accompaniment and symbols of today - the Flag of Ukraine, the "Borodyansky Cockerel", a shell casing, a military cap and a woman's headscarf in anticipation of meeting the winner. Gradually, everyone - both artists and spectators, plunging into the world of images, feeling the instability of time and space, become participants in the exhibition, artistic action - performance.
    Two images of a museum object - an ancient grand piano, which was left alone in the memorial hall after the exhibition was dismantled - attract attention. And if the black-and-white photo of Oleksandr Shuleshko, which captured the artist and art critic Andrii Nadiezhdin in a moment of contemplation at the piano in the empty hall of the museum, where he fruitfully worked for almost three decades as a leading researcher, impresses with the awareness of the horror that befell us all, the helplessness before the uncertainty. This picture was taken on March 21, the birthday of the famous architect Yakov Pauchenko. Usually, during peacetime, this day, celebrations on the occasion of the awarding of the regional award in the field of architecture, heraldry and vexillology and decorative and applied arts named after Yakov Pauchenkov were traditionally held in his own house, where the museum is now located. And this year it was empty and quiet. And only the ticking of the hands of the clock in the lobby of the museum, above which a huge photo portrait of the artist Oleksandr Osmerkin with a brush in his hand hangs, brought back to reality.
    And the same grand piano, but already in the sunshine, surrounded by the greenery of museum flowers, waiting for paintings and visitors on a painting by Oleksandr Demydenko with the symbolic title "When the day comes, the war will end..." Exhibition hall of the O.O.Osmerkin Memorial Museum. April 2022." Despite the feeling of anxiety in the colorful shades, consonant with the pixel armor of the angels of Nataliia Kornilova's composition "Covering. Peace in our home", the picture literally radiates pure positivity and fills us with confidence that "Everything will be Ukraine!", and we will always remember those who are no longer with us...