U.S.-Ukraine photography show runs in Cincinnati and Kharkiv (10/26/03)

U.S.-Ukraine photography show runs in Cincinnati and Kharkiv

by Jan Sherbin

CINCINNATI - A U.S.-Ukraine photo exhibit has been running simultaneously in Cincinnati and Kharkiv. The exhibit is by Guennadi Maslov, who moved from Kharkiv to Cincinnati 10 years ago.

The exhibit is "an effort to reconcile the Eastern and Western halves of my brain," Mr. Maslov explained.

Titled "Halves," the exhibit communicates other dualities as well - of memory, of consciousness, of human nature. "Geographically, the show is an almost impossible combination of post-Soviet Ukraine and American Midwest," Mr. Maslov noted. "It's part of a never-ending quest to illustrate the fragile dualities of human nature."

Mr. Maslov opened "Halves" on August 22 at the Kharkiv Arts Museum, then returned to Cincinnati to open it on September 5 at the Carnegie Center in Covington, Ky., a Cincinnati suburb.

Tatiana Pavlova, director of the Museum of Photography at the Kharkiv Art and Design Academy, compared the exhibit's style to the work Mr. Maslov did several years ago: "Gone is the harsh documentary of his "Circus" and "Gypsy" series. It is completely replaced by the softness of elegant gesture and enigma. The artist is still concerned with social themes and the mysteries of growing up. Political undertones can be discovered in most of the 'Halves' images. But they are no longer dominant, or distinct, or critical. The images on these walls are more psychological insight than document. And in that I see their strength and beauty."

Mr. Maslov explained his current style: "It is an attempt to translate the poetry of memories and dreams into the verse of photography - an attempt to catch the fluid material of the subconscious and put it on a somewhat more stable base of photographic paper."

Mr. Maslov represented Kharkiv's documentary school at the USSR's last big photo festival in Moscow in 1989. The next show that included his work changed his fate. It was a three-photographer exhibit in 1991 at Cincinnati's Contemporary Art Center, arranged by the Cincinnati-Kharkiv Sister City Project. Mr. Maslov's photos appeared alongside work by two other artists from Ukraine - Alexander Suprun and Eugene Pavlov.

Mr. Maslov settled in Cincinnati in 1994 and established his own photography business. He specializes in portraits, and also exhibits and teaches photography. Last year, at the annual FOTOFO in Bratislava, Slovakia, he added to the dualities of his life by representing both the United States and Ukraine.

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