Tweet Mar 23, 2011
Walking along Chicago Avenue in the Ukrainian Village reveals several storefronts dedicated to the Eastern European experience, including the Ukrainian Institute of Modern Art. For 40 years, the Ukrainian Institute of Modern Art — or UIMA — has reflected on the past, present and future of those moments, and given foreign artists a chance to state their artistic autonomy.
Located in a nondescript white building, UIMA has been a neighborhood staple since 1971. The Institute’s website states how over five million Ukrainians have emigrated from Ukraine, Russia and Poland to North America. During a time of widespread oppression in Europe, the Institute opened up liberties for artists to express themselves in a way they couldn’t back home. Before transforming it into a museum, Ukrainians and other Chicago-based artists rented the storefront and held an exhibition in 1959. By 1971, the Institute established its line of minimal and abstract art work from around the world and became a world-class educator on Ukrainian art.
The Institute’s glass foyer branches off into two rooms, one being the current exhibition and the adjacent room housing the permanent collections. Monthly exhibitions include the Bauhaus movement, Canadian artist Ronald Kostyniuk, the late Bohdan Kowalsky, sculptures from folk artist Gregor Kruk and UIMA’s upcoming 40th anniversary celebration, which will showcase 40 artists that have exhibited at the Institute throughout the past few decades.
Despite its focus on the Ukraine, the permanent collection’s “émigrés, immigrants, artists” also include artists from Canada, Poland, Chicago and London, as well as the works of Alexander Archipenko, Europe’s first cubist sculptor. Sectioned into images imbuing the spirit of landscape, imagination, figures, structure and color, the artwork is represented in the form of oil paintings, mixed media on canvas, and sculpture made from steel, acrylic and copper wire. The spacious accommodations allow all of the work to be interspersed throughout the room without seeming cluttered or overwhelming.
by Garin Pirnia, Chicago Reporter for Hello Metro Garin Pirnia Garin was raised on a healthy diet of MTV and Top 40 radio in the suburbs of Dayton, Ohio, but one day found herself going to college in Los Angeles. After getting a writing degree, she somehow landed in Chicago. She’s written about art, music, food and general interest for The Onion AV Club, Time Out Chicago, Chicago Innerview, The Wall Street Journal and AOL’s music site Spinner.com.
