Bereznitsky Art Foundation presents a solo exhibition of one of the most prominent Ukrainian artists, Roman Mykhailov. His art is not a static image, but a constant search, a reaction to social processes, a study of how a person interacts with society and what marks he leaves behind. His works are a combination of deep psychology, expression and the destruction of classical artistic norms.
 
Roman Mykhailov has participated in a large number of exhibitions and won the Best Installation Award at the Saatchi Gallery in London. Roman showed his projects in Paris on the facades of churches and was twice nominated for the PinchukArtPrize.
 
Mykhailov works with image deformation: his characters seem to dissolve into the environment, lose their faces, become shadows or symbols. This is not just a technical technique, it is a statement about the anonymity of a person in society and in their own lives. For the artist, this blurring of boundaries is important - between the individual and society, between presence and absence, between a person and his or her projection. His characters are figures who seem to be in a social vacuum. They are close, but alienated. They are there, but not completely.
 
Some of Roman's works are a gesture towards traditional art education. His characters are not idealized, the form is deliberately rough, the strokes are raw, unprocessed, with an emphasis on simplifying details. There is no hint of academic precision here - only painterly chaos, which becomes more honest than any ideal form.
 
Mykhailov uses the motifs of classical European portraiture, but introduces a modern context - weapons, military attributes, and the dynamics of aggression. As a result, the effect of a gap between tradition and modernity emerges, emphasising alienation and the loss of past meanings.
Colour in his works performs not only a decorative but also an emotional function. It does not just shape the mood, but becomes a full-value participant in the narrative.
The space in his works seems flat, but it is not empty. The lack of depth creates the effect of compression, intimacy. Sometimes the background seems purposely sterile, so that the characters exist in a vacuum, devoid of context, as if they were left alone with their existence. In other works, the space is dynamic, created by brushstrokes that give off anxiety and expression.
 
The composition of Roman Mykhailov's works varies between a clear structure and visual chaos. His figures can seem monumental, as if cut into the space, but at the same time unstable - their outlines change, dissolve into the background or merge with the environment. This creates the feeling that they are not just painted on the canvas, but are in the process of transformation, as if they have not yet determined their final form.
 
The artist does not limit himself to repetitive images. His work changes, responds to the context and time. Each painting is a new answer, a new state, a new vector of reflection. This is a process in which the artist allows materials and textures to ‘live’, spread, show their own will, creating the effect of elusiveness and understatement.
 
Roman Mykhailov's exhibition is not just a painting, it is a recording of emotional reality through an artistic form. It is about changing the worldview, about adapting to new conditions, about freedom and its loss.