The Art Memorial Museum of O.O.Osmerkin presents a personal exhibition of graphic works by Dmytro Totok "Artistic Transformation".
    Totok Dmytro Anatoliiovych was born on December 7, 1975 in the city of Novoukraiinka, Kirovohrad region. He graduated from the Kirovohrad Institute of Agricultural Machine Building (KIAMB), now the Central Ukrainian National Technical University (CUNTU) with a degree in "power supply of industrial enterprises", qualification "electrical engineer" (1997), master's degree from CUNTU (2008).
    He worked as the chief engineer of Znamianka Regional Electrical networks, the head of Oleksandriia Regional Electrical networks. Since 2012, he has been the director of Utility Company "Misksvitlo" ("City light") of the Kropyvnytskyi City Council. On his initiative, in 2016, the first in Ukraine "smart" lighting system OWLET (from Shreder, Ternopil) was implemented in Kropyvnytskyi.
    He was fond of drawing as a child. During his student years, he worked as a designer at the Kirovohrad printing center "KOD" (Kropivnytskyi). Passion for fine arts prompted him to start studying at the Oleksandr Osmerkin Art School in the city of Kropyvnytskyi in a group for adults in 2018. Under the leadership of the school director Hanna Tymofienko and experienced teacher Ihor Tymofienko, who, while preserving the foundations of the academic school, introduce the latest forms of education, professionally acquires knowledge of painting and drawing. At the same time, he independently listened to distance learning courses of modern artists on the graphic representation of the human figure and plein air painting. Favorite art genres are portrait and still life.
    Graduate of all-Ukrainian and international art competitions - Two-round international multi-genre art festival-competition "We are from Ukraine" (Odesa, 2022), XI All-Ukrainian competition of fine and decorative and applied arts "Etude vernissage" (Uzhgorod, 2022), II Open All-Ukrainian competition "His Majesty Still Life" (Kropyvnytskyi, 2023), VI International two-round festival-competition "Spivograi" (Kropivnytskyi, 2023), International competition "Golden Time Talent" (London, Great Britain, 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".
    He presented personal exhibitions of works in Kropyvnytskyi - "Portraits" in the "Teatralna" cafe at the Academic Regional Ukrainian Music and Drama Theater named after Marko Kropyvnytskyi (2021), "Colors of Life" at the Tourist Information Center (2023).
    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 work "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.
From an interview with Dmytro Totok for local media:
    "One morning I woke up and decided that I wanted to study to be an artist. I came to the school, and they said: we have a senior group, take paints and come to class. And I came. I was given the task of drawing a vase of flowers, I did it in 15 minutes. It was my zero drawing and I was accepted for training... I draw after work, on weekends... I don't think about anything, I feel very easy, this is my best state. I am not distracted by anything - I am completely in the drawing: how the hand draws a line, color, tone, blacker, lighter, you are completely absorbed in this process. For me, drawing is a rest from a stressful job."
    https://suspilne.media/kropyvnytskiy/132628-koli-pisu-kartini-zabuvau-pro-vse-na-sviti-kropivnicanin-dmitro-totok/
    "Sometimes, I draw in workbooks when I have a free moment. I like to draw people with a non-standard appearance, their smiles and serious faces...Most of all I like to draw female portraits. The heroines can be acquaintances, stars, or I just take a photo of a girl from the Internet. There are very few male portraits. I do not draw to order, because I take up a pencil when I feel a call from within, then I want to create."
    https://cbn.com.ua/articles/2023-03-13-tehnika-leonardo-da-vinchi-dyrektor-misksvitla-malyuye-kartyny