Silly noses and angels

Yevhenia Hapchynska calls her new private exhibition in the Russian Art Museum “Children’s Gardens.” The painter’s droll and charming world needs neither changes nor improvements. This is a sweet and cozy space, where the pinnacle of drama is A Stolen Cheese-Cake and the only possible tragedy is A Pimple on the Nose. Its smart inhabitants, who look like children, adults, and angels to an equal extent, are happily and artlessly enjoying a number of pleasant activities - drinking tea, bathing, playing hide-and-seek (Oh! Oh! Our Hats Have Flown Away, I Found a Chicken God, Christmas Spice-Cakes, Pomegranate Hide-And-Seek, A Rennet) Sometimes they perform feats (Savior of a Little Bird) dream (Swan Lake, An Old Potato, The Sky in My Hands) and everyone is in love.

However, there are certain variants or nuances in Hapchynska’s paintings. She may suddenly repudiate her dollies dressed up and coiffed in 18th-century style and start talking about the “Chepukhonosyks.” But that’s an absolutely different story.