Theosophy on the “Silver Road”

“The Silver Road,” a new art exhibit at the BK KPI Gallery, is part of the 5th International Theosophy Forum “The Roads of the Spiritual Development of Man and Society,” that was held recently in Kyiv. The exhibit features works by the noted science fiction writer Oles Berdnyk (“The Sky Riders”) and decorative compositions by Valentyna Berdnyk-Sokorynska (“The Maiden Ukraine”). Artist Volodymyr Sokolov considers himself a continuator of symbolist traditions (“Crucifixion,” “The Inimitable”). However, most of the display consists of works submitted by three artists: Asror Muradov, Olena Zhuravel, and Valentyna Chaikovska.

Asror Muradov is the creator of a magical space that is mysterious, forbidding, and reminiscent of another planet or some kind of parallel world (“On the Other Side”). The artist mostly titles his pictures in a simple yet meaningful way (“Creation”, “Aspiration”). His paintings are a journey through a landscape filled with chimerical mountains, fantastic vegetation, and mysterious castles, which are strikingly alike and seem to be a manifestation of a single force (“Burning Castle,” “Addressing a Star”). Vast expanses of his world are uninhabited, yet all-knowing creatures resembling heroes from gothic bestsellers appear out of nowhere.

Olena Zhuravel and Valentyna Chaikovska are twin sisters, which makes the creative originality of each even more striking. Olena paints harmonious and peaceful pictures. Her heroes, clad in Silver Age attire favored by the author, are waiting for miracles to occur. This lasting expectation fills them with melancholy (“Presentiment,” “Sea Music”), but in the meantime a miracle occurs simply, quietly, imperceptibly (“Christmas Eve”). Valentyna Chaikovska’s paintings and prints are totally different. She is a visionary, who is passionately determined to share with the world the truths that have been revealed to her, and to convey them to every living soul (“High Forehead,” “Love Letter”). Her colorful oils and water colors are brimming with complex cryptic symbols revealed in Valentyna’s rhymed essays that accompany most of her works, especially the recent ones (“Eleven Rooms of Life,” “Two Eternities”). However, it is impossible not to observe that her earlier pictures have no such “verbal commentaries”; her images from that period are quite self-sufficient and probably more meaningful (“Silver Distance,” “A Look through the Ages. Master of Stained Glass”).