Valeria Troubina

Valeria Troubina is one of the main representatives of the Ukrainian transavantgarde movement and, through the early 1990s, a member of the Kyiv art squat “the Paris Commune.” Born in 1966 in Luhansk, she first studied at Luhansk Secondary Art School (today Luhansk State Academy of Culture and Arts) and, in 1985, began studying at the Kyiv State Art Institute (now the National Academy of Fine Arts and Architecture), where she graduated from its stage design department in 1990. Troubina initially worked in figurative painting but was soon almost entirely captivated by the genre of imaginary landscapes, which remains central to her artistic practice.

The specifics of her professional education affected the nature of her work both during her studies and in the years thereafter. Theatricality is perceptible in the artist’s early works; dating back as far as the second half of the 1980s, they are characterized by drama, accentuated collision, graphic clarity, and the contrast of black scale and dynamic white lines. The painting Розмова [Conversation] (1987) is particularly striking in this respect. The small-format works of this period are symbolic, intertwining Eastern mythologies and sacral beliefs with those of the West, especially Scandinavia, an area of which the artist has always been fond. In her works of the late 1980s—Союзники [Allies] (1989), Місячний поцілунок [Moon Kiss] (1988), Прогулянка берегом [Walking by the Shore] (1989), Синя флейта [Blue Flute] (1989)—Troubina moved away from this black range toward a more complex color structure, but ultimately the mood of these colors remains dark and twilight-esque, contributing to the decadent feeling of the work. These pieces are distinctive in their use of strange contours of human and animal figures, frontal placement in the foreground, compositional symmetry (as seen in work such as Сіамський слон [Siamese Elephant, 1990], Поклоніння новонародженому страху [Adoration of the Newborn Fear, 1989], and Моління [Bowing, 1985, ZAM, D23109]), and the emblematic quality of their silhouettes locked in struggle, as in Боротьба [The Fight] (1988)—these are the defining features of these canvases. Often, Troubina paints in oil on a premade lining of tempera. This technique enhances the texture and gives a sense of volume to the images. The differing shades of contour outlining her figures give the sense that she is enveloping them in a shell to protect them from the outside world, thereby giving the characters an emphatic pointedness, such as in Аспекти душі [Aspects of the Soul] (1990).

In the spring of 1989, a pivotal year in Troubina’s creativity, the artist took part in the second youth plein air in Sedniv (Chernihiv region), which resulted in an exhibition at the National Museum of Ukraine. In fall of the same year, some of her works produced in Sedniv were shown at the State Exhibition of Young Artists, and she soon moved into a Kyiv squat on what was then Lenin Street (now Bohdan Khmelnytsky Street). Troubina was at that point an established artist of the Ukrainian New Wave, a movement oriented to postmodernism, as was dominant in that cultural era more broadly. In terms of painting, this manifested in the forms and stylistics of neo-expressionism: Artists favored oversized figurative canvases of pseudomythological content, allowing paradoxical interpretations of the subjects, eclecticism, references to art history, and energetic, spontaneous brushwork.

Troubina’s works of the late 1980s and early 1990s all conform to these features of postmodernism. All her paintings are on very large canvases with panoramic composition, as in Тигри, що пожирають праведників [Tigers Devouring the Righteous] (diptych, 1989) and Блага вість [Good News] (1989). In addition to the aforementioned features, she added a distinctive decorative element, exemplified in Царь-риба [The Fish Tsar] (1989) as well as cartoonish, fairy-tale qualities and a sense of “smiling monstrosity,” as found in the work Прохолода небес [Cool of Heaven] (1990). As was customary to say at the time, Troubina incorporated a “childish discourse”—as in Декорації ненавмисного вбивства [Scenes of an Unintentional Murder] (1989) and Несуть рибу [Carrying Fish] (1991). This was quite common at the time in the squat on Lenin Street, and, later, on Paris Commune Street (now Mykhailovskaia), where the key figures of the Ukrainian creative community moved in the summer of 1990. Troubina often returned to images of angels and fish, in reference to God in the symbolic tradition of Christianity (and other religions). Parallel to her bright, saturated, and melancholic style, the artist also often worked in a light, airy, transparent, watercolor-like style, without forced sadness, but with an emerging lyrical tone, sometimes tinged with nostalgia. This style is represented in the works Небесний хор [Heavenly Choir] (1989), Зимній спогад про адмірала [Winter Memory of the Admiral] (1991), Бубетти [Bubettas] (1992), Шарфики Ганса [Hans’s Scarves] (1992), and Замок у горах [Castle in the Mountains] (1992). The weighty mythology is therefore replaced by deep existential themes, explored through naive imagery. This metamorphosis occurred in part due to the influence of Oleg Holosiy (1965–1993), with whom the artist developed a close personal and professional relationship.

This artistic period is also notable for Troubina’s participation in some of the most important exhibitions of the era, including Ukrainian Painting of the 20th Century at the National Fine Arts Museum, New Figurations at the Odesa Museum of Regional History, and The Calm and Artists of the Paris Commune in the halls of the Union of Artists on Antonovicha and Volodymyrska Streets, respectively. The first of these exhibitions showed Troubina’s painting Котик поранений іде, вушко песика гризе [Wounded Kitty’s Going, Doggy’s Ear He's Gnawing] (1989). This work was inspired by the paintings of El Greco and can be interpreted as an ironic parody of the socialist realist paintings of Soviet leaders walking atop a globe as a “planetary” ruler. At the Hall of Vladimirskaya in Kyiv, the exhibition Artists of the Paris Commune (1991), which centered the Kyiv squat of the same name, included the artist’s work Без назви [Untitled] (1991). The painting depicts a submerged figure of a boy against an ultramarine sky with a cookie glued to the canvas, evoking associations with Raphael’s putti from the Sistine Madonna. The artist consistently refers to art history—for example, Юнаки, що сидять на березі моря [Youth Sitting by the Sea] (1992), which was presented in the exhibition The Calm, features the recognizable faces of her fellow painters Oleg Holosiy and Oleksandr Hnylytskyj (1961–2009), painted as a romanticist portrait in landscape and scale, with an intense blue background to further accentuate the style. This mood of retro-romantic,ism pervades other works of the period, such as Ідеальний коханець [The Perfect Lover] (1990) which features the profile of nineteenth-century British romantic poet Lord Byron, and Та, що відходить у тінь [Going into the Shadows] (1991). In the diptych Хлопчик із собаками [Boy with Dogs] (1992) from the same exhibition, the left side directly copies a scene from a classic genre work by Ferdinand Roybet (1840–1920), while the right side features only his signature. Troubina’s adherence to this postmodern method of quotation and appropriation fully manifests in these works.

From 1992, Troubina became increasingly interested in landscape art. Her favorite motifs included abandoned cottages, gardens, palm trees, palaces with reservoirs (Drop, 1992), and gates, symbols of transition between worlds. This appears frequently in the early 1990s, found in the paintings Ворота [Gate] (1992), Ворота Ш [Gate III] (1993), and Блакитні ворота [Blue Gate] (1994). These works focus on mystical elements and twilight colors to convey a feeling of detachment from reality and a dreamlike atmosphere. In artworks with these traits, one can feel the echo of the mystical Nordic romanticism of Caspar David Friedrich (1774–1840), a German painter who worked in the first half of the nineteenth century.

She continued to work in this genre during her Scottish residency, which she undertook after taking part in the group exhibition of Ukrainian artists Angels over Ukraine in the Apostolic Church of Edinburgh in 1993. In this residency, Troubina created a series of landscapes depicting ancient bridges and mysterious gardens with fountains and steps. Paintings in this series include Велика революція [La grand revolution] (1993), Міст [Bridge] (1993), Ранкова слава [Morning Glory] (1993), and Фонтан любові [Fountain of Love] (1994). These works capture the viewer’s imagination and guide one into the unknown. By 1994, she was being carried away by a new inspiration, influenced by J. M. W. Turner (1775–1851) and the Pre-Raphaelites.

Shortly thereafter, Troubina moved to the United States, first to Chicago and later to Berkeley, California. However, at the invitation of the Szuper Gallery in Munich, she moved to Germany after only a few years in the United States. There, she participated in exhibitions before returning to Kyiv for a year, working at the squat “VZh” (an abbreviation of its location on Velyka Zhytomyrska Street). In 1996, she exhibited her conceptual project 1000 Marilyns at the Oleksandr Blank Gallery, at the time one of Kyiv’s leading galleries. In 2008 she signed a contract with Bottega Gallery, also in Kyiv, where she had several solo exhibitions. Troubina simultaneously held solo shows with other institutions, particularly in the Dymchuk and RA galleries, and would come to Ukraine almost annually. Her most famous works of this period are all landscapes, including Лабіринт [Labyrinth] (2008), Нескінченний [Infinite] (2012), and Воронка [Funnel] (2014). She painted a majestic utopian landscape entitled Проспект Джорджо де Кіріко (Київ у майбутньому) [Giorgio de Chirico Avenue (the Future Kyiv)] (2022) for the group exhibition of Ukrainian women artists Art For Freedom, held in 2022 at a gallery in Marbella, Spain, following the beginning of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

Troubina continues to live and work in Kyiv, Ukraine, and Berkley, United States.

Oleksandr Soloviov

Translated from Ukranian by Ada Wordsworth