Ukraine in Focus

A real-time photo exhibition & Installation

from Ukrainian photo artist Maxim Dondyuk

March 24th – April 29th

Opening – Thursday, March 24th at 7 pm

Studio Sakse will shed additional light on what is occurring on the ground in Ukraine. Maxim Dondyuk, an award-winning documentary photographer, has been capturing scenes of struggle and resistance since fighting broke out. He has generously offered to share this ongoing and largely unpublished project through a new Sakse exhibition.

On February 24, 2022, Russian forces entered Ukraine, beginning one of the most severe humanitarian crises in Europe since World War 2. While exact death tolls are uncertain, preliminary estimates of casualties are in the thousands and rising. As of March 9, two million Ukrainians have fled the country. The heinous attack — and ensuing displacement of millions of Ukrainian men, women, and children — has stirred an enormously sympathetic and visceral response by spectators around the globe.

During the event, Irina Dondyuk will contextualize this exhibition & installation via video call with Q&A. We look forward to holding this important real time exhibition from Ukraine’s top documentary photographer.

Exhibition by Studio Sakse & the Sathirakoses-Nagapradeepa Foundation

Maxim Dondyuk – (b. 1983) is a Ukrainian visual artist working in the field of documentary photography. His practice integrates multiple mediums including photography, video, text, and archival material. Maxim’s works often explore issues relating to history, memory, conflict, and their consequences. Selected past projects include ‘TB epidemic in Ukraine’, ‘Crimea Sich’, about a military upbringing of children in the secret camp in the Crimea Mountains and its pitfalls; ‘Between Life and Death’, is a personal reflection on the aftermath of wars through the ruins and devastated landscapes, previously been battlefields; ‘ Culture of Confrontation’, which in 2019 resulted in the book of the same name, and became a turning point in author’s artistic work. In his ongoing project ‘ Untitled Project from Chernobyl’ Maxim works with vernacular and found photographs in the restricted areas, combining them with landscape photographs of the territories that were burned by nuclear energy. Maxim has been widely awarded numerous recognitions including International Photographer of the Year in Lucie Awards, finalist of the Prix Pictet Photography Prize, Magnum Photos competition ‘30 under 30’ for emerging documentary photographers, finalist of the W. Eugene Smith Grant in Humanistic Photography. His work has been exhibited internationally, at the Musée d’Art Moderne in Paris, Somerset House in London, MAXXI National Museum of XXI Century Arts in Rome, International Red Cross and Red Crescent Museum in Geneva, the Biennale of Photography in Bogota in Colombia, among others. He also was awarded an artist residency Cité Internationale des Arts in Paris. Maxim’s works are held in private and museum collections, including the National Museum of Photography in Colombia, the Benaki Museum in Greece, the National Museum of The History of Ukraine in WWII.

    https://maximdondyuk.com/                     Photo of Maxim by Jérôme Sessini ( Magnum )