Through the Eyes of its Women (2022)
Curatorial Statement
Written by Kathrine Page (the Gretchen Hupfel Curator of Contemporary Art at the Delaware Contemporary)
Spanish philosopher George Santayana once quipped, “Those who cannot remember the past are doomed to repeat it.” In other words, the rational mind would learn from the mistakes of the past as insights and evolve into something better. Yet empirical evidence shows us history does repeat itself and often with disastrous results witnessed in male-dominated breeding patterns of irrationality through warfare, genocide, and annihilation of culture.
For artist Ola Rondiak remembering the past has been her life’s work. Her paintings, collages, and sculptures are deeply rooted in her family’s experiences in Ukraine. The intractable emotional experiences are always at the core of her work. She remembers the stories handed down by her maternal ancestors, friends, and neighbors. As such Rondiak is devoted to remembering the past to preserve the culture of Ukraine while honoring those most affected by those who wage war on it: its women. For it is the women who stood behind the lines and watched their sons die, who stood in chains at the door of the gulags, who stood with a dying baby in their arms. Yet in all, the women knew the key to survival — to an emotional release — meant to tap into inherited cultural arts. Through the Eyes of its Women is the art of freedom and a portrait of the preservation of culture.
Throughout her career, her work has consistently addressed the themes of genocide, identity, freedom, the preservation of culture, and again, of history repeating itself. Ranging from large-scale works on canvas and paper to small sculptures of motankas, Through the Eyes of its Women features examples of work from every period of her artistic career through the language of the female portrait. Through the eyes of the women, Rondiak lays bare their stories with the deft hand of brushwork, layering of collage, or application of plaster of Paris. Jarring color harmonies, angular contours, faces depicted with both detached and abject emotion, symbolize angst. What captivates the viewer upon first inspection are the gazing eyes in each of Rondiak’s paintings. The deep brown wells or down cast angles look on mournfully, yet with gentleness and intensity, each telling a story to elicit a visceral response.
Still, in those stories, Rondiak gives us the framework for understanding her country’s past and hopes for building her country’s future. When citizens are able to discuss their shared past freely and are able to come to their own moral conclusions, they build the path to a sustainable, independent progression. Through the eyes that witnessed and the hands that bear memory, Rondiak’s portraits offer a portal into a culture barraged once again to educate the horrors of war while staging her own quiet rebellion against oppression. Through the eyes of its women who remember the past and recall the best of human ingenuity, who keep the flames of identity flickering in a time when war threatens to smolder it, do we stare long into the abyss or do we respond in productive, compassionate, and creative ways?
“Everybody Knows” (2017)
Acrylic collage on canvas
47.24 x 35.43 in
Installation Photos
Event Photos
Exhibition Location:
Ukraine House (Washington D.C., U.S.A)
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