Ukrainian artist Yana Rusnak’s works synergise the vitality of many worlds
Yana Rusnak's horses in Freedom.
Muhammad Yusuf, Features Writer
Skaya Art Agency has launched its new art season in collaboration with ME Dubai, the iconic architectural haven designed by the late British-Iraqi architect Zaha Hadid. In celebration of the new season, Skaya is presenting the Art in Shades of Gold exhibition by Ukrainian artist Yana Rusnak (Sept. 7 — Oct. 9) in ME Dubai’s Art Gallery area. It is part of ME Dubai’s Cultural Connections initiative and admission is free. Rusnak’s artwork fuses vibrant animalism and abstract elements, symbolising human ambition and life-affirming energy.
“We are pleased to collaborate with ME Dubai and Yana Rusnak to launch our new art season,” said Anastasia Kopijevski, founder and owner of Skaya Art Agency. “ME Dubai’s exquisite architecture and Yana’s unique paintings will inspire a love of contemporary art and provoke boundless imagination — ideal for advancing the UAE’s art scene and fostering a deeper appreciation of art.” Born in 1993, Rusnak is a renowned contemporary artist whose Dubai show brings over seven years of artistic prowess via ME Dubai.
Her paintings are allegories of how human emotions and character intertwine with the animal world. Her work is characterised by the use of bold and geometric shapes, vivid colours and a prominent use of triangles which symbolise various concepts such as balance, harmony, tension, conflict, integration, subjectivity and ascension. Rusnak creates a ‘Dialogue with the Universe’ as she alludes to the elements of music, light, nature and the galaxy, revealing human aspirations and positive energy. The sharp angles and dynamic lines of each triangle create a sense of movement and energy that are radiant in nature.
The artist’s triangle symbol is also inseparable from the number three denoting symmetry, understanding and wisdom. Rusnak bases her paintings in the concept of allegory, of how human emotions and character are related to the animal world. This universalism is captured by the triangle where one side denotes power, another represents discovery and the third, wisdom. Themes of magic and occultism are united in it. Her paintings blend the figurative and the abstract.
In Rusnak’s works, the essence of painting and photography, are the instruments of expression. Rusnak’s paintings also prominently include the colours of two precious metals: gold and silver. Silver, for her, represents the colour of the moon and signifies values of innocence, purity and mercy. Gold references splendour, the radiance of the sun, and the highly valued quality of non-deterioration.
Each of her masterpieces also contains a precious gold nugget, that reflects her especial relation with art. Rusnak’s works are held in private collections worldwide and in commercial buildings in Miami, New Delhi, Cairo, Beirut, Moscow, Riyadh, Kiev, London and Geneva, among other places. Her work has also won popularity in the UAE having been exhibited at various hotels, galleries and previous editions of World Art Dubai (2019, 2021).
She has held a solo exhibition at Kempinski, Dubai (2022), hosted her works at ADIHEX (Abu Dhabi, 2021), held a solo show at Villa Klimt (Wien, Austria, 2018), had a joint exhibition with Freywille at the Austrian Embassy in Azerbaijan (Baku, Azerbaijan, 2018), held shows at Art Beirut (Lebanon, 2018), at Art Miami (Fontainbleau Miami Beach, 2017), shown her works at Open 20 (Venice, Italy, 2017) and during the Kyiv Photo Week (Ukraine, 2017), hosted a solo exhibition in the Museum of East and West Arts (Odessa, Ukraine, 2017), at Art Monaco (2016) and showed her work in a solo at Art Fusion (Beirut, Lebanon, 2016).
She was winner of the Rixos Magazine Choice Prize in 2016. The month-long residency of her artworks at ME Dubai is complemented by the hotel’s awe-inspiring architecture and interior design, forming an aesthetic collaboration. Visitors, art aficionados or the merely interested are invited to revitalise their energy within the sanctuary of ME Dubai. They can also explore the hotel’s creative spaces and fulfil their aesthetic thirst through them. Founded in 2016 by Kopijevski, Skaya Art Agency is a Dubai based boutique art consultancy.
With a knowledge of the international art market, it represents a wide range of selected artists, who cater to discerning tastes. Skaya’s specialty is contemporary fine art, pop art and street art. ME Dubai is the first ME by Melia in the Middle East designed by the late and renowned architect Dame Zaha Hadid. It is the only hotel project where Hadid personally designed the interiors and exteriors. ME Dubai is situated in the enchanting The Opus by Omniyat building, in the heart of Burj Khalifa district, one of the city’s most vibrant areas. The Opus building is developed by Middle East real estate developer, Omniyat.
Located in global cultural epicentres, ME by Melia is a collection of design hotels that strives to discover contemporary culture. “Contemporary culture is part of who we are,” says ME by Melia. “We express its creativity and energy in every aspect of our hotel experience. ME by Melia hotels thrive on the sensorial connection to their settings — the visual stimuli, the taste of exquisite local food, the uplifting culture of its citizens and cultural leaders.”
Embedded in each hotel´s ecosystem, it notes, “is a community of artists, influencers, creatives and technologies that raise the hotel to a must-see and must-stay, destination for those who yearn for inspiration and energy.” There are currently eight hotels in the portfolio across Europe, Middle East, the Americas and Mexico, including ME Dubai.
