↳ Exhibitions

Ayla Dmyterko at Zalucky Contemporary

May 19, 2022

Artist: Ayla Dmyterko

Exhibition title: Vyshyvani Kazky, Embroidered Stories

Venue: Zalucky Contemporary, Toronto, Canada

Date: April 30 – May 28, 2022

Photography: Toni Hafkenscheid / all images copyright and courtesy of the artist and Zalucky Contemporary

From one bread basket to another, the first wave of Ukrainians arrived in Saskatchewan, on treaty 4 territory – the tradition-al lands of the nêhiyawak (Cree), Anihšināpēk (Saulteaux), Dakota, Lakota, and Nakoda, as well as the homeland of the Métis/Michif Nation. The Ukrainians’ agrarian knowledge and labour was obliquely utilized in the Crown’s colonial project as they were simultaneously dispossessed of their lands back home via the Soviet collectivization project. The artist’s ances-tors were one of many caught between these imperialist projects of the early 1900’s.

This exhibition presents a triptych of lens-based generational returns by Ukrainian-Canadian artist Ayla Dmyterko. Mediated through diasporic imagination, she traces the path of her ancestors from the Carpathian Mountains and the Ivano-Frankivsk region of Western Ukraine; through the Glasgow Ports, where she is currently based; to Montréal, where she studied; back to the prairies, where she was raised. Unravelling the complex histories of place, her auto-ethnography catalyses intersec-tional dialogue within settler-imperialist legacies, both in the East and in the West.

Reactivating and re-embodying Ukrainian cultural memory, Dmyterko’s photographic and moving image works, Future Projections (2018), Peasants Under Glass (2020) and Solastalgic Soliloquy (2020-22) discursively respond to historical injustices to create sites of transformation. Incorporating archival images of her family, folkloric costumes for stage and her own muscle memory, the artist oscillates between reverence and regeneration. The lenses that document this work become portals, symbolising both temporal and spatial remove, distance, and dissonance. Taken together, Dmyterko uncovers ways that the past is continuously modified and re-iterated to shape our current psyche and conceptions of the future.

Ayla Dmyterko (b.1988, she/her) is a Ukrainian-Canadian artist based in Glasgow. Upon completing her Master of Fine Art at the Glasgow School of Art (2020), she was awarded the Graduate Fellowship through Glasgow Sculpture Studios. Prior to studying in the UK, she completed a BFA in Painting from Concordia University, Montréal (2015) and a BEd in Visual Art and Dance Education from the University of Regina (2011). She has exhibited her work at international galleries and insti-tutes including VITRINE, Basel & London; CCA Glasgow; Lunchtime Gallery, Glasgow; Projet Pangée, Montréal; The Royal Scottish Academy, Edinburgh, MAP Magazine, Glasgow, Art Gallery of Regina; Hague Gallery, Regina; Woodland Patterns, Milwaukee; Regina Performing Arts Centre; MacKenzie Art Gallery, Regina; Gallery Aux Vues, Montréal and forthcoming with Alchemy Film Festival, Hawick. Her work is published in Art Maze Mag, New York; KAJET Journal, Bucharest; Penrose Helix, London; Chains, Glasgow & Mainz and 2 Queens Gallery, Leicester.

While this exhibition was organized long in advance of Russia’s current unjustified war in Ukraine, both the gallery and artist would like to affirm their solidarity with the people of Ukraine in their fight to reassert their sovereignty. A portion of all sales through this exhibition will be donated to Help Us Help’s #standwithukraine initiative. HUH is a Toronto-based, registered Canadian charity fo-cused on humanitarian aid and educational projects. Given the current war in Ukraine, Help Us Help is committed to continuously re-evaluating and responding to the evolving needs of the Ukrainian people.

Funded in part by The Shevchenko Foundation, Jean Karakola & Linda Ladin Visual Art Fund Special programming presented in partnership with St. Vladimir Institute, Toronto.