I Walked Along Green Grass in the Garden...
Open in A-Lobby from 12 July to 17 September 2023Free entry
The exhibition I Walked Along Green Grass in the Garden features more than 20 colourful paintings inspired by Ukrainian folk songs. In addition to the artworks, visitors can explore folk songs.
Born in 1970 in the City of Lozova in Kharkiv Oblast, Vadym Ishchenko currently lives in Horishni Plavni in Poltava Oblast. He graduated from secondary school and from a mining and metallurgy technical school there. As he had been interested in wood carving from a very young age, he started to earn his living with art in 1988 and was lucky enough to learn in the workshop of famous folk artist and painter Leonid Tsarhorodsky.
The artist is known in Ukraine as a master wood carver. Vadym has represented Ukraine in many folk art exhibitions in Europe. For instance, in 2019 his sculpture Bench won him second place in the Aurelia Medusa competition in Rome. The commission of the iconostasis of the Church of the Three Saints in the city of Horishni Plavni is most certainly the greatest recognition he has received to date. This became his original work from design to carving. He worked on the iconostasis between 2011 and 2016.
Vadym’s wood carvings carry the spirit of old folk art and are made following traditional methods. Thematically, however, they combine the past and the present. The same can be said about his paintings. They depict the life of people with folksy simplicity and the main purpose of his art is to gain a deep understanding of folk wisdom and connect it with modernity.
Before arriving in Estonia, the painting exhibition I Walked Along Green Grass in the Garden travelled in Ukraine under the name The Valley of Patterned Songs and received a warm welcome. The inspiration for the paintings comes from folk songs. Lines from songs became titles of the artworks as their plots were transferred to canvas. Ancient folk wisdom, old spells and humorous folk tales help all people through life in good times and bad...
