The "Slums" Exhibition

May 15 — June 13, 2026, the main hall of ImaginePoint Gallery will host the exhibition "THE WILDS" (NETRI). Oleksiy Lytvynenko, Oleksiy Malykh.

"Netri" refers to dense, impenetrable forest thickets or wilds. In this sense, the paintings of two artists, Oleksiy Lytvynenko and Oleksiy Malykh, reveal the hidden secrets of the landscape to the viewer. However, each artist offers a unique perspective, a distinct touch to the unknown, a personal feeling, and, consequently, their own visualization codes—and a philosophy where landscape elements take on existential meanings.

For Oleksiy Lytvynenko, it is a calm, focused contemplation—a slow fixation on canvas with a fine brush, much like the masters of the Gongbi style, capturing the breath and movement of plants. The artist seems to dissolve into the trees and grasses, evoking the Zen practice where self-knowledge is achieved by observing the world without negative emotions.

In contrast, the painting of Oleksiy Malykh possesses an entirely different temperament. It is the "art of unrest." Fragments of landscapes burst forth from the depths of memory or the subconscious. Colors are vibrant, moving across the canvas swiftly and incessantly, as if driven by the wind. Ink spreads spontaneously and flows freely: the artist's techniques echo the Hatsuboku (splashed-ink) method, which visualizes the Zen philosophical view of emptiness as the source of all existence. Supple black lines and blurred spots form true thickets.

While these two artistic perspectives on the landscape occupy different aesthetic and emotional dimensions, they converge in the desire to reach the "wilds"—in the sense of the deepest, most secret parts of the soul. And, perhaps, the most vital.