Men and Women

The new exhibition by the well-known Kyiv artist Oleksandr Ahafonov, now showing in what once was a bakery in St. Sophia’s Cathedral, is called “Animus et Anima” (loosely translated as “a male soul and a female soul”). This was also the title of a previous exhibition. Naturally, this repetition is not accidental. According to the artist, “Animus et Anima” is probably the best definition of his oeuvre.

The beautiful and somewhat sad, exquisite and ironical, fabulous and theatrical world of Oleksandr Ahafonov is unusually consolidated, embracing not only relatively similar paintings and graphics but also sculptures made of bronze and wood. The artist’s heroes are toys, musicians, traveling acrobats, lovers, and angels, all of which are literally smothered in bouquets of lilac in his new pictures. They are defenseless and courageous, moody and quaint in character (“Life as Life,” “ Dancing Angel,” “Tea or Coffee?”). Their destiny is perpetual wandering and fateful, accidental encounters (“Accidental Encounter,” “Those Who Walk,” “The Blue Hour”), so any delay leads to captivity and death (“The Golden Cage”). Yet, Ahafonov’s heroes treat even death as a dangerous but attractive game (“May the Clown’s Soul Rest in Peace”).