Denys Metelin

Ukrainian street artist and painter Denys Metelin (b. 1994, Crimea) has worked prolifically throughout his life to establish his work and visual identity. Blending immensely detailed imagery with block-like figures, Metelin’s loud colors and subjects communicate the uncompromising realities of modern Ukrainian life. Displaced from his home in Crimea following Russia’s 2014 annexation of the region, Denys moved to Lviv to continue his practice, eventually joining the art association “Farbanovyi lys” in 2016. His use of both spray and acrylic paint speaks to his consistent practice both in the studio and on the streets. 

To many Ukrainians like Metelin, the war started in earnest in 2014, in Crimea. Since then, much of the artist’s work has focused explicitly on the themes of Russian aggression and Ukrainian identity, drawing from the fabric of urban environments. Since the full-scale invasion, Metelin has beautifully blended fascinations with architecture and urban planning to present traditional Ukrainian imagery with cityscapes and war motifs. 

Sonya: A Sunflower Network exhibition features two works by Metelin. The post-invasion Defenders of Kyiv (2022) presents the mythical founding family of Kyiv floating above the city in defiance of Russian aggression as a symbol of Ukrainian national strength. Dnipro Underground (2021) reimagines an underground station in the southern city into a technicolor dreamscape far from the reality of the stations status today, when underground stations across the country are used as bomb shelters under constant shelling. In this sense,  Dnipro Underground has adopted a new meaning in the wake of the invasion, a tragic memory of a place which underwent further horrors in the brutal shelling of Dnipro in mid-January, 2023.