Ukrainian Institute of Modern Art to present work of Aka Pereyma (04/03/05)

Ukrainian Institute of Modern Art to present work of Aka Pereyma

CHICAGO - The Ukrainian Institute of Modern Art (UIMA) presents the body of work of artist Aka Pereyma in a comprehensive exhibition of drawings, watercolors, oils, mixed media, sculptures and ceramics - a celebration of the artist's significant contribution to contemporary Ukainian art and culture and art in general.

A versatile artist, Ms. Pereyma draws inspiration for her work from the traditions and artistic expressions of her Ukrainian heritage. While deeply rooted in ancient Ukrainian folklore and vibrantly colorful folk art, her work is strikingly contemporary in expression.

Her art often draws on the richness of Ukrainian folk art as a symbolic form and is often generated by the power of nature, just as the very rhythms of nature defined the visual expression of Ukraine's ancient culture found on vessels, monolithic pre-Christain sculpture, ritualistic objects, including always the simplest source of restorative symbolism - the decorated egg or pysanka.

Ms. Pereyma has had a distinguished career as an artist and has earned a number of awards recognizing her originality of composition, perfection and depth of detail, richness of color and her certainty of vision. For her contribution to Ukrainian cultural identity, Ms. Pereyma received the Outstanding Ukrainian Artist medal awarded by the government of Ukraine in 2001, and in 2004 she was a recipient of the Ohio Heritage Fellowship for her artistry in ceramics and pysanky.

The exhibition "Aka Pereyma, 40 Years of Creativity: 1965-2005" opens at the UIMA on April 10, where it will be on view through May 22. The opening reception will be held on April 24 at 1-6 p.m., with a gallery talk by the artist at 4 p.m.

An exhibition catalogue, printed in Ukraine as a publication of Fine Arts Magazine, Kyiv, with Mykola Marechevskyy, editor, will be available at the opening reception on April 24. Price: $20; order requests may be sent to the UIMA by mail: 2320 W. Chicago Ave., Chicago, IL. 60622; telephone, (773) 227-5522; or, e-mail, uima@netzero.net.

The UIMA gallery hours are Wednesday through Sunday, noon - 4 p.m. For additional information about the exhibit contact Ms. Kuchma, chair of the UIMA Art Committee, at (773) 227-5445 or visit the website www.uima-art.org.

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Aka Pereyma (née Klym) was born in 1927 in Siedlce, Poland, moved with her family to Ukraine in 1939, and come to the United States as a post-war refugee in 1959. Her formal art studies were at the School of Art Institute of Chicago, the Dayton Art Institute and the Hobart School of Welding Technology.

Ms. Pereyma has been exhibiting her work yearly since 1967 in solo and group shows in North America, and in frequent exhibitions - some 30 - in cities throughout Ukraine since the country's independence in 1991.

As part of her frequent visits to Ukraine, Ms. Pereyma has been present at several openings of her traveling exhibitions and continues to study and explore the traditional arts of her homeland.

Every year, since 1986, in order to show the influence of the "pysanka" on her art, Ms. Pereyma exhibits her works with pysanky, which were made by her sister Tanya Osadca first in the United States and, since 1991, in Ukraine.

Ms. Pereyma is recognized as a Merited Artist of Ukraine by the Ukrainian government, and holds a place of honor in her hometown in the Troy Hall of Fame.

The artist creates work in seven work-stations on the family's nearly 400-acre farm in Troy, Ohio.

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