Ihor Slabicky
The pysanka exhibit at the Portsmouth Free Public Library features pysanky by Ihor Slabicky.
PORTSMOUTH, R.I. – The Portsmouth Free Public Library is featuring an exhibit of 61 pysanky that includes 34 pysanky written by pysankar Ihor Slabicky and 27 from his collection. They are being shown on a background of embroidered rushnyky. The exhibit opened on March 30 and will remain on display through the end of April.
Mr. Slabicky approaches pysanka writing with the goal of creating or writing a new design each year. He creates pysanky that are a continuation and a furthering and exploration of the possibilities of the strong and graphic geometric designs that have been written in the past. He says, “They are what a writer of those designs back then could be writing now. If the early ethnographers and collectors had visited that little village that they had decided not to, they would have seen eggs written with these designs.” What all his pysanky have in common is strong, geometric design elements and traditional colors.
Mr. Slabicky has previously exhibited his pysanky at the “2008 Pysanka Symposium” in Washington and at The Ukrainian Museum’s annual pysanka exhibition “Pysanka: Safeguarding an Ancient Tradition” in 2000. His pysanky are also included in the collections of the Pysanka Museum in Kolomiya, Ukraine, at the University of Alberta in Edmonton, and in many private collections
The library is located at 2658 E. Main Road in Portsmouth, R.I.