Yuliia Kabina & the Georgia Museum Symposium on Ukrainian Art

• “The Awe of Ordinary Labors: 20th-Century Paintings from Ukraine,” Georgia Museum of Art (January 18 – June 1, 2025)
• “Ukraine’s People Revealed,” Lamar Dodd School of Art
• “Demons, Prophets and Détente,” contemporary art installation of ceramic sculpture by Richard N. Johnson, Lamar Dodd School of Art

Asen Kirin is the curator for “The Awe of Ordinary Labors” exhibition, and he selected the paintings acquired by GMOA. According to Yuliia, most of the paintings belong to social realism and exhibit national characteristics of Ukrainian art, while still showing the influences of European art. 

Yuliia’s main responsibility was to create a catalogue for the exhibition. Her work involved finding biographical information on the artists, translating, and constructing short narratives about them.

“Most of them [the painters] have bios in encyclopedias on Soviet Ukrainian/Ukrainian artists, but the barebone facts do not really give any idea about them as humans and are simply a boring read,” said Yuliia. “That’s why…[I had to] fill in the gaps of "was born—studied—worked—died" with more specific information that helps humanize them.”

For example, it was most likely the first time one of the female artists was exhibited. The only info that Yuliia could find about her was in her famous husband's memoirs. Yuliia ended up constructing the artist’s biography out of her husband’s memories.

In addition to the curator using some of Yuliia’s biographies in a course he taught during the fall semester, they will also be printed in a catalogue in 2026. Yuliia skillfully balanced researching, writing, editing, to uncover the lives of these artists for an Anglophone audience. Through her hard work, Yuliia ensured that the lives of these Ukrainian artists were (re)told, depicting them in the full-fledged manner they deserve.