The Campolo Center of Eastern University and Palmer Theological Seminary and College was delighted to host East Meets West, a visual art exhibit that paid tribute to eight innovative women icon makers of Ukraine, a land where the Latin and Byzantine worlds collide and converge. Those eight artists, students of a new school of iconography in the West Ukrainian cultural center of Lviv, achieved recognition in a religious art genre traditionally dominated by men. Respectful of the theological and artistic canons of iconography, they experimented with different mediums, unusual painting techniques, and color palettes to create contemporary variations on time-honored themes.

Crucifixion

Ivanka Demchuk

(b. 1990, Lviv, Ukraine)

“Creating icons means implementing the best aesthetic achievements of our time, so they are closer to our modern perceptions.”

The Baptism of Christ

Kateryna Kuziv

(b. 1993, Lviv, Ukraine)

“Icon painting must be appropriate to the present day. It should not be an historical artifact but something living to which a person can connect. In this form it is able to visually proclaim the Gospel as an icon is intended to do.”

Resurrection

Natalya Rusetska

(b. 1984, Khmelnytskyi, Ukraine)

“The icon hides a secret of the unknown. Icon-painting for me is a process of interpretation, based on what I read, see, and feel. Everything that surrounds me might urge me to create a new work.”

The Holy Trinity

Kateryna Shadrina

(b. 1995, Ukraine)

“I want to make art that makes sense and the language of icon painting is meaningful and comprehensive. Some say the icon is a spatial boundary between the visible and invisible world—in which case, the study of sacred art is not just exciting but a great responsibility.”

The Transfiguration

Hlafira Shcherbak

(b. 1995, Sevastopol, Ukraine)

“My art is about feelings and experiences, a dialogue and process of co-creation with viewers in all their differences, creating a sense of integrity in the presence of God.”

The Annunciation

Khrystyna Yatsyniak

(b. 1994, Ivano-Frankivsk, Ukraine)

While Khrystyna prefers to work in a muted palette of grays and earth tones, she sometimes incorporates rigorously geometric Ukrainian folk art patterns in bright red into her paintings.

Christ Pantocrator

Lyuba Yatskiv

(b. 1977, Lviv, Ukraine)

“For me, what is most interesting in icon-painting aesthetics is the dynamic plasticity of drawing. I would never start working with a prepared, predefined concept. It is a line of drawing that prompts the development of a certain image. You only need to listen to it, feeling its vivid motion and subtle plastic nuances. Having said this, I do work within the iconographic canon, though I never know what the outcome will look like.”

The Birth of Christ

Ulyana Tomkevych

(b. 1981, Lviv, Ukraine)

“Painting an icon is a special conversation with the Lord and with myself. It is a time for rethinking the Bible stories and the Ten Commandments in the context of modern human life because the Bible is timeless. I think, first of all, that God is Love and Mercy. My daily icon painting helps me to live my life with this understanding.”

About the Curator

John A. Kohan

John A. Kohan is an art collector, writer, and former Time Magazine foreign correspondent to Russia. He is the owner of the Sacred Art Pilgrim Collection and directed the Art in the Sanctuary exhibition program at Saint Peter’s Episcopal Church in Delaware, Ohio. Read John Kohan’s story of discovering these iconographers in an essay titled On the Border of East and West: Searching for Icons in Lviv.

Learn More

Explore more information about the exhibit
Exhibit Part 1: Women Icon Makers of West Ukraine Exhibit Part 2: Art in Time of War Campolo Center for Ministry Website