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. |