In Memory of the Ukrainian Famine-Genocide 1932-33

Winnipeg – Oseredok Ukrainian Cultural and Educational Centre is pleased to present an exhibition of drawings by Olexander Wlasenko: As We Slept which explores the portrayal of illusion as reality and juxtaposes it with images of reality as illusion. The artist creates large scale drawings of images appropriated from Soviet propaganda sources that portray Soviet citizens, posed and ever-ready to serve the communist state.  He then contrasts this totalitarian mythology by interspersing intimate-scaled white-washed wall drawings of famine victims in Soviet Ukraine 1932-33, a horrific occurrence hidden from view and expunged from human memory by the Soviets. According to Wlasenko, “…this project explores the tension between artifice and actuality, participating in the contemporary discourse around ethics, identity and the rehabilitation of historical memory.”

As a son of a survivor of the Ukrainian Famine-Genocide 1932-33, Wlasenko places his faith “in the restorative power of art, a force which creates forums of discussion, puncturing the silence of sleep.”

Olexander Wlasenko graduated from the University of Western Ontario with a Masters of Fine Art Degree. He has exhibited extensively in Toronto, Winnipeg, Calgary, Edmonton and Dawson City in The Yukon, as well as internationally in Florence, Italy and Kyiv, Ukraine.  He is the recipient of awards for drawing and grants from Canada Council and the Ontario Arts Council. He has worked as Assistant Curator at the Robert McLaughlin Gallery in Oshawa, Ontario and is currently Curator at the Station Gallery in Whitby, Ontario.

The opening of the exhibition was held on Sunday, October 5^th and runs until November 29, 2008.