Calendar of Events

The Arts & Culture Alliance is pleased to present six new exhibitions at the Emporium Center in downtown Knoxville opening on Friday, September 6, from 5:00-9:00 PM. As part of a special First Friday Block Party sponsored by the Alliance and City of Knoxville, the free gathering with exhibiting artists will also feature nearly 20 artist vendors and live music with Fountain City Ramblers along the 100 Block of Gay Street, which will be open to pedestrians only from 4-10 PM between Jackson and Vine avenues.

Where I Am is a series of etchings and linocuts created in Kyiv, Ukraine during the summer of 2022. This period marked the time immediately after the initial shock of Russia's unprovoked and unjust full-scale invasion of Ukraine had passed, allowing for the first meaningful reflections to emerge. During this time, millions of Ukrainians sought refuge abroad, grappling with the loss of their homeland. The artists behind the Where I Am project are members of the Antresola Art Studio, which has been active for over a decade at the Kyiv-Mohyla Academy in Ukraine. This studio fosters collaboration between younger and older generations of artists, including Ігор Цикура (Ihor Tsykura) and Інна Любич (Inna Liubych), who created pieces for the exhibit. The entire series was created for charity, with all proceeds from the sale of the artworks going toward providing medical equipment for the Ukrainian service members, facilitated through the Ukrainian charitable organization UA First Aid. Where I Am has previously exhibited in Kyiv, Ukraine; Tallinn, Estonia; and Athens, Ohio (USA). This local exhibition is presented by koloHUB, a Knoxville-based 501(c)(3) nonprofit dedicated to helping and improving the lives of war-impacted people and animals in Ukraine.

Home as a phenomenon, as a concrete object, is blurred in the twilight of the uncertain modern world. The tragic experience that millions of Ukrainians are currently experiencing prompts them to search for a new meaning of the very concept of “my home.” The project Where I Am is an attempt to capture fragments of semantic constructions (or delusions? or desperate dreams?) that, as a result of pressure from the savage and arrogant bureaucratic worlds, have not yet been able to form something coherent. The work of creating a new, comprehensible picture of the world from these elements is difficult and long, but it cannot be avoided.

Ігор Цикура (Ihor Tsykura) was born in the Donetsk region in 1965. He grew up in the southern part of the Kherson region and moved to Kyiv in the mid-90s as a “free artist.” Since 2001, he has been the head of the Antresola Art Studio: https://www.facebook.com/igor.tsikura. Інна Любич (Inna Liubych) was born in the Vinnytsia region in 1991. She studied in Kyiv, where she currently resides and works as a psychologist at the Center for Mental Health at the National University of Kyiv-Mohyla Academy. Liubych is the author of the painting project "Alexithymia of Space" (2019) and the co-author of the graphic projects "Where Am I?" (2023) and "Mystical Space" (2023): https://www.facebook.com/innoms

Instagram @whereiamukraine
www.koloHUB.com
https://uafirstaid.com/en/

The Emporium Center is located at 100 S. Gay Street, Knoxville, TN 37902. Gallery hours are M-F 9-5 and Sat 10-1. For more information, please see www.knoxalliance.com or call (865) 523-7543.