Lion in Embroidered Shirt

The Akvarel [watercolor] Gallery has opened a one-man show by the young Lviv artist, Iryna Prots. The cycle of paintings, entitled Dyvosvit [wonderland], is thematically simple and perfectly holistic. Prots presents 12 paintings dedicated to the 12 signs of the zodiac. Interestingly, the paintings hang on the walls in order of appearance of the signs in the zodiacal ring. Iryna’s paintings are charming, amusing, and a bit cartoon-like (Gemini, Virgo, and especially Sagittarius resembling a little Cupid from a cartoon for adults). All paintings are markedly decorative. Eight large seals exhibiting countless ornamental motifs surround each sign of the zodiac. But the painter from Lviv takes it even further, putting the national Ukrainian costume on Virgo, an embroidered shirt on Leo, and straw hats on Cancer and Scorpio. On the whole, instead of music of the spheres — with a touch of science and astronomy — or the mysticism of horoscopes, Iryna Prots offers us a fairy tale about the signs of the zodiac, so colorful, fascinating, and definitely modern.