MUMBAI: A traffic jam on a canvas — sketched in black and purplish-grey, cars chock-a-block with people, the artwork stands out because of one lone car with a couple and a dog in bright colours, highlighting fear and a desperate attempt at safety. Illustrator and graphic designer Mari Kinovych, based in the Ukranian capital of Kyiv, who created this untitled work from February 2022, has the artist’s words: “One of the hardest moments of 2022 was on the morning of February 25, when I had to fit my entire life into one car and evacuate from Kyiv.”
The Consulate of Ukraine and Consulate of Sweden — one of Ukraine’s biggest supporters in the fight against Russian military occupation of Ukraine for the past four years — showcased Kinovych’s work alongside 20 other digital prints of original artworks by Ukrainian artists and illustrators who belong to an artistic community that is showing the world what creativity and resilience in the face of military brutality and violence can look like.
The day-long exhibition, titled The Worst Anniversary Ever, at Mumbai’s IF.BE, part of the Banyan Tree Cafe at Ballard Pier, celebrated these artists. “We brought this exhibition to Mumbai to mark a tragic date — the fourth anniversary of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine. It has been 1,461 days since Russia launched this genocidal war, and it is already the twelfth year of Russian aggression against Ukraine. Four years of daily pain, loss, destruction — but also four years of resilience, unity and unwavering resistance,” said Anna Zaichenko, acting consul general of Ukraine in Mumbai. “It is meant to remind the world that Ukraine’s fight for freedom continues and that freedom is never free. By hosting it in Mumbai, we aim to strengthen solidarity, raise awareness, and ensure that the voices of Ukrainians are heard far beyond our borders,” she told Hindustan Times.
In Perfectly Safe, a stark painting with a spot of joy — a child experiencing a moment of play surrounded by gunmen on her sides — its artist Yurii Shapoval writes, “Thanks to the Ukrainian military, children have the opportunity to live, enjoy and create in an independent state.” Kherson-based artist Mykhail Rai interprets his confinement inside a basement in a surrealistic work, February 24. Alevtina Kakhidze’s Self-Portrait, about being “torn between overwhelming support on one side and death and hatred on the other” in the artist’s own words, is part of an ongoing visual diary — turning personal reflection into cultural diplomacy, and displayed in galleries around the world; an untitled work by Yasya Marushkina chronicles the destruction of the Kakhovka Dam, which caused catastrophic flooding and submerged entire towns.
Hopelessness and the will to live co-exist in this collection, curated by Katya Tyler — a leading cultural voice in Ukraine, known for organizing socially engaged public art projects and large-scale cultural initiatives. “It has been a volunteer project for her since 2022. She decided to collect art pieces that will document the country’s creative forces,” Zaichenko said.
Sven Ostberg, consul general of Sweden in Mumbai, said, “Sweden joined the NATO in 2024 because this was our incentive — to support Ukraine against this illegal, full-scale Russian invasion. So far, Sweden has offered military and other support to Ukraine with a total of $11.4 billion and our support, like many other European nations, will continue.”
Ukraine’s art of resistance has gone to several galleries and art institutions around the world. The intellectual and creative responses to the Russian invasion has reached cities around the world, which includes the subject of a book, Ukrainian Lessons: Art in a Time of War (Jonathan Cape, Penguin Random House) by the Guardian’s culture writer Charlotte Higgins. The deeply personal, first-hand account of art, survival and resistance in wartime Ukraine, written from her field reporting trips, comes out in August this year.
This is cultural resistance at its best — a creative and cultural response that elevates art as a form of survival, identity affirmation and resistance. This movement that is growing in the country, spans from street art and digital illustrations to performances in bomb shelters, with many creators integrating traditional folk motifs with contemporary languages to reclaim national culture.