Female Corporeality and Religion 2023
Online Art Exhibition
A Ruined Church
Volodymyr Slepchenko
The work performed in the author's original technique, “Artline”
Canvas, acrylic
100 x 170 cm
2012
Not For Sale
Description:
St Paul envisages the human body as a temple (1 Cor 6.19). This artwork can be regarded as an attempt to interpret this image in a contemporary context. The painting consists of two parts: on the left side, we see a destroyed church building, silhouettes of which still preserve something of its past beauty and grandeur. But nothing in this world lasts forever. Buildings, however magnificent, are destroyed by upheavals or human negligence. The girl in the foreground attracts much more attention. She is sad and in despair. What led her to this? Perhaps it is a love drama or some hardships of life… The images in her tattoos testify to her inner struggles: on the shoulder, there is a basilisk, which is a symbol of the struggle between good and evil; on the backbone, she has a tattoo of a tree, but it is without leaves or blossom. In front of her, we see a figure of the luminous angel, which symbolizes the divine presence, standing always close and ready to help even in the darkest moments.
Volodymyr Slepchenko
In his work, academician Volodymyr Slepchenko constantly returns to the theme of the female body in various cultural and sociological contexts.
Volodymyr Slepchenko (b. 1947) is a Ukrainian painter, graphic and monumental artist, and master of psychological portraiture. He works in the artistic orientation of romantic symbolism, inventing his own technique and unique artline style. People's Artist of Ukraine, Honored Artist of Ukraine, academician. Head of the Department of Culture and Arts and Academician of the World Academy of Arts (MONDIAL ART ACADEMIA), France.
He has participated in numerous regional, national, foreign and international exhibitions. He is the winner of many national and international awards, including the Botticelli Prize in 2019. Since 1970, he has held more than 80 personal exhibitions in Ukraine, Poland, France, Germany, Canada, Israel, Slovakia, Italy, Greece, Spain, Japan, and other countries. He was a participant in the group exhibition of Ukrainian artists "Autumn Salon-90" in Paris (France) in 1990.
Volodymyr Slepchenko's paintings and graphic works are held in museums, galleries, and private collections in Ukraine and in many countries of the world. Since 2005, the portrait of the Grand Master of the Order of Malta, Andrew Bertie, has been on permanent display at the Gallery of Portraits of Grand Masters in Malta. Since 2018, the painting "The Great Baptism" has found a place of honor in the permanent exhibition on the second floor of the main shrine of Ukraine - St. Sophia Cathedral in Kyiv.
For more than 50 years, the artist has been fruitfully working in various types and genres of fine arts, but among the main works of the artist are paintings on historical themes from the Trypillia era to the present.
