Don’t Close Your Eyes: Ukrainian Artists Respond to the War

Opening reception Wednesday, January 17, 5-7PM

Jointly curated by Hanna Melnyczuk, a Ukrainian-American artist, and Halyna Andrusenko, an artist from Kyiv, The Umbrella Arts Center’s iteration of the traveling exhibition, Don’t Close Your Eyes: Ukrainian Artists Respond to the War,  features the work of 27 artists from various regions of Ukraine, responding to the invasion of Ukraine, which began February 24, 2022. Expressions of grief, loss, survival, and hope range from surrealism to expressionism, and include drawings, paintings, mixed media, papercuts, lithographs, and a six-minute video, Protected, in which Halyna Andrusenko echoes the wrapping of monuments in Kyiv by wrapping her parents in cloth.

Don’t Close Your Eyes features a broad spectrum of powerful work in response to the war in Ukraine. This work is a testament to the power of the human spirit, and the abilities of artists to synthesize powerful emotions and responses into works that transcend boundaries of time, geography, and space. The Umbrella Arts Center’s exhibition  will be the final showing of  Don’t Close Your Eyes, which has traveled around Massachusetts including to UMass Lowell and  The New Arts Center in Newton and beyond to Madison Arts & Culture Alliance in New Jersey and The Ukrainian Institute of Chicago.

Proceeds from sales will be split between the creators and Ukraine Forward, which provides life-saving resources to the people of Ukraine.

The exhibition is free and open to the public. Indoor gallery hours are 9AM-9PM daily. The Umbrella is ADA accessible, offers free lot and street parking, and is conveniently located off Route 2 and two blocks from the Fitchburg Line.