On June 21, 2024, the opening of a personal exhibition of Dmytro Totok's graphic works "Artistic Transformation" was held in the O.O.Osmerkin Art Memorial Museum.
    Dmytro Totok is known in Kropyvnytskyi as the director of Utility Company "Misksvitlo" ("City light"), it was on his initiative that in 2016, the first "smart" OWLET outdoor lighting system in Ukraine was implemented in our city. But, having a technical education, having graduated from the Kirovohrad Institute of Agricultural Engineering, now the Central Ukrainian National Technical University, majoring in "energy supply of industrial enterprises" in 1997 and a master's degree in 2008, Dmytro Totok is also actively engaged in drawing. In one of the interviews with the local media, he admits: "I paint after work, on weekends... I don't think about anything, it's very easy for me, it's my best state. I am not distracted by anything - I am all in the picture: how the hand draws a line, color, tone, blacker, lighter, you are completely engrossed in this process. For me, drawing is a break from stressful work."
    He was fond of drawing as a child. Since 2018, he has been studying at the Oleksandr Osmerkin Art School in the city of Kropyvnytskyi in a group for adults under the guidance of the school director Hanna Tymofienko and teacher Ihor Tymofienko. Favorite art genres are portrait and still life. Graduate of all-Ukrainian and international art competitions. He presented personal exhibitions of works in Kropyvnytskyi "Portraits" (2021), "Colors of Life" (2023). An active participant in collective exhibitions at the Art Museum of the Kirovohrad Regional Council and the art project of the Oleksandr Osmerkin Memorial Art Museum "Art Studios" on the topics: "Portraits of contemporaries against the background of war" and "Museum still life".
The current exhibition "Artistic Transformation" is a kind of creative report.
    Its exhibition consists of more than 40 graphic works made in 2019-2024 in various graphic techniques - pencil, charcoal, sangina, gouache, watercolor. These are characteristic portrait images of relatives, friends and contemporaries, colorful still-life compositions and architectural landscapes of European cities. The picture "Year of War" evokes special emotions. Also presented at the exhibition are sketchbooks with author's sketches, flipping through the pages of which you can fully feel the creative thoughts, the flight of artistic imagination, the inspired impromptu of Dmytro Totok, an electrical engineer by profession and an artist by heart.
    Colleagues, friends, artists came to the opening, to whom Dmytro Totok was happy to present an exhibition booklet prepared by the museum's scientists with his own autograph.
    At the beginning of the event, the author of the exhibition gave a unique speech "My creative path: moments that, in my opinion, influenced my desire to draw", during which he spoke sincerely and humorously about his passion for drawing: "My first memory of drawing is from kindergarten. I was 4-5 years old. They painted the winter forest with paints. My mother came from the parents' meeting and told me about my achievements in drawing. This pleasant emotion remained and did not fade under the influence of events and time."
    Congratulating her student on the opening of the play, the director of the O. O. Osmerkin Art School, Hanna Tymofienko, noted: "The incredible desire for artistic knowledge is the first thing that caught my eye when I met Dmytro Totok. His first test work at the painting school characterized him as a determined, uncomplicated and undeniably gifted personality. Later, his determination and enormous capacity for work, thirst for new knowledge manifested itself. This is not Dmytro's first exhibition, but every interaction with the viewer demonstrates his artistic soul and multifaceted talent."
    The representatives of the museums congratulated Dmytro Totok on the presentation of the exhibition - the leading researcher of the museum, the curator of the art project "Art Studios" Olha Krasnopolska, the chief custodian of the funds of the Karol Szymanowski Museum of Musical Culture Olena Klassova, as well as the chief custodian of the funds Valentyna Nozhenko and Iryna Petlia, the researcher of "The Museum of Art of the Kirovohrad Regional Council", who thanked them for participating in the exhibitions and presented a museum catalog.
    It is symbolic that Dmytro Totok's opening ceremony of exhibition took place on the day of the 30th anniversary of the opening of the museum to visitors. Therefore, congratulations were also addressed to the creative team of the museum, which once again presented art lovers with an artistic holiday. And the decoration of the event was a concert performance by the teachers of Music School No. 1 named after Heinrich Neuhaus, organized by the director of the school Yevheniia Maliavkina, who, with a masterful performance of the works of modern Ukrainian composers, created for all present an atmosphere of soul warmth and sincere gratitude to the soldiers of the Armed Forces of Ukraine for the opportunity to live and work at that time , when they courageously defend the territorial integrity and independence of our country.