Titled “Sonya,” after the Ukrainian word for sunflower (the country’s national flower and a potent symbol of solidarity), this exhibition offers a glimpse of how art has adapted, endured and enlightened during the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
The week-long show comes from the Sunflower Network, a nonprofit that raises money for relief efforts on the ground in Ukraine as well as to support Ukrainian artists. All of the proceeds from this L.A. exhibition will go towards that initiative; a similar pop-up in New York late last year raised $200,000 and funded the delivery of generators to the occupied country.
Among the 40 works on display at the Pavilion (the former home of the Annenberg Space for Photography), you’ll find Nikita Kadan’s wartime text drawings made in a gallery-turned-bomb shelter, photographer Sasha Kurmaz’s six-foot-tall piece on the human obsession with violence, and photographs of Aljoscha’s colorful sculptures that he personally delivered to schools and nursing homes in Ukraine.
The exhibition kicks off with an opening reception on the evening of February 16 (5–8pm), and closes with an event on the one-year anniversary of the start of the war on February 24 (7–10pm) with a reading and DJ set from Ukrainian activist and artist Daria Kolomiec, whose series “Diaries of War” offers a personal account of the night missiles first hit her hometown.
If you’re interested in actually acquiring any of the artwork, you can inquire online or send an email to hello@sunflowernetwork.io. A limited online preview auction is open through February 15, as well.
