A new art exhibition by renowned Ukrainian artist Oleh Tistol, “Shadows of Choice ‘Anghiari’”, has been unveiled in Lviv. The project is the inaugural exhibition of the newly established POLITE Gallery at Lviv Polytechnic National University.
The opening of the exhibition was attended by Andriy Moskalenko, First Deputy Mayor of Lviv. He stressed how important it is that within the university walls, where ideas and meanings are shaped, a dialogue is taking place between art and the experience of veterans, whose figures are central to the exhibition.
Part of the project consists of three large canvases with dark human silhouettes. They depict a standing figure, two people in conversation seated opposite one another, and a person with a prosthetic leg. The artist uses the image of the shadow as a way of talking about choice, presence and memory. In these works, the shadows of soldiers emerge as symbols of dignity and hope, going beyond purely military themes.
As conceived by the artist, the shadow appears as a language of memory and a living image not tied to a specific moment in time. Oleh Tistol emphasises that, for him, the process of creating the works was crucial, particularly his direct interaction with the soldiers who took part in the project.
“We wanted to make it a kind of entertainment. These are real shadows. At first, we had to persuade them, and then the lads started coming forward of their own accord, soldiers came, our people who are depicted here. We talked and simply drew real shadows,” the artist explained.
According to the artist, a significant part of the works was created in 2025, when soldiers came to Lviv, met with the team and joined the creative process, allowing their shadows to be captured directly in the course of conversation.
At the exhibition opening, Lviv Polytechnic Rector Nataliia Shakhovska drew attention to the fact that a shadow is constantly changing and never fixed, so the attempt to capture it in an artwork lends the project particular weight. She also stressed how important it is whose shadows exactly are depicted on the canvases – these are the shadows of people thanks to whom the country can continue to exist.
The exhibition project “Shadows of Choice ‘Anghiari’” has not only launched the POLITE Gallery, but has also drawn attention to the dialogue between contemporary art and the experience of Ukrainian defenders.
Oleh Tistol is one of the most prominent figures in contemporary Ukrainian art, an artist of the “New Ukrainian Wave” generation. He was born in 1960 in Vradiivka in the Mykolaiv region and graduated in 1984 from the Lviv State Institute of Decorative and Applied Arts. He works in painting, photography, sculpture, installation and other forms of contemporary art, exploring in his practice Ukrainian history, culture, national identity and cultural symbols.