ABOUT THE EXHIBITION
The artworks in "Turning Toward the Light" are Lydia Bodnar-Balahutrak’s visual meditations and represent a multi-layered documentation of the current war in Ukraine against Russia. The exhibition is a tribute to Ukraine’s fight for freedom, and each artwork is meant to elicit a turning toward the light, away from darkness, to evoke pathos, express wonder, and perpetuate a discourse about one’s place in the world. Cultural/societal/political issues are filtered through her frames of reference as a visual artist and Ukrainian American, born and raised in the U.S.A., and a child of World War II refugees from Ukraine. Probing her own cultural ties and collective memory, Bodnar-Balahutrak strives to bear witness to crucial historic events that touch the common core of all humanity.
Bodnar-Balahutrak continues to explore narrative and metaphor by combining collage, text, and figuration. She draws and paints metaphoric imagery on collaged print media of historic or current events, using oil paint, resins, charcoal, and pastels. Nature-oriented images evolve through a layered process of improvising, adding and subtracting, and concealing and revealing compositional elements. In a complimentary series of narratives also in this body of work, Bodnar-Balahutrak has worked on charred wood panels layered with mixtures of resins, dried plants, seeds, and ashes. The organic materials and processes symbolize wanton destruction, in tandem with regenerative reclamation. Flora and fauna depicted in the exhibition, particularly the tall, light-seeking sunflowers, represent healing strength, protection, warmth, sustenance, unity and hope.
Artist Page and Bio: http://www.hooksepsteingalleries.com/lydiabodnarbalahutrak
