Yevgenia Laptii 33 years old. She was born in Kharkiv, Ukraine. She graduated from the Kharkiv Art Academy of Design and Arts (specialty «History of Arts»). She has participated in various group and solo exhibitions in Ukraine, Italy, Germany, Portugal, Poland and Austria. She is a laureate of the 2018 NonStopMedia contest and Festival CIRCULATION(S) – 2024.
About Me
Artist Statement
I started my career as a photographer in 2016. It was then that I started doing my first photo project, in which I was inspired by the culture of romanticism and the nature of the village where I lived. The village in the Kharkiv region, which I moved to in 2016, played a big role in my development as an artist.
Picturesque landscapes, in a sense, neglect, freedom inspired me to create deeply romantic images, imbued with individuality and alienation from the world, bustling. She created photographs in which man is an integral part of nature, she is inscribed in the landscape, she complements it.
It is through the realization of «man-part of nature» came the realization that the human body is its largest «organ» of interaction with this world. Man is a part of the universe, and it is through the body that he knows the world.
I believe that in our society the body in many respects acts as an element of propaganda, it is vulgarized and slandered, true intimate corporality is taboo. In my work I create a separate mythological system where the body lives in harmony with the environment, it is not taboo, it is not hidden, it lives by the laws of the universe.
This is where I see a chance to change established cultural paradigms. In all my work, I use Photoshop. After all, all my pictures are only a kind of preparation for the further «creation» of photography. As an artist, I am not interested in the immediacy of the moment, on the contrary, I create works that are purely fictional.
Reflection with the environment occurs through a complete change and transformation of the form. In this way, the external world acquires other sessions, the moment that exists here and now and is relayed through the photo, is stretched, leveled and serves only as a blank for the creation of new artistic forms and symbolic sessions.
That is, I strive to show the surrounding world through the prism of the internal, symbolism and mythologizing of everyday life. After all, you can grasp the moment only by «stretching» it in time.
After February 24, the focus of my work shifted from physicality to reflection on the events of the Russian-Ukrainian war. My village, where I started my artistic activity, was occupied. I spent 20 days in the occupation, but they affected me and my creativity. Currently, in my work, I explore themes such as the loss of home and the inability to return to one’s homeland due to hostilities, as well as the threat of landmines, the feeling of constant fear, and the inability to live a «normal» life, even in peaceful conditions.
A very real threat is transformed into a metaphorical constant fear, because even when far from the front lines, people who survived the occupation and hostilities feel a constant threat and fear that the war will catch up with them again.
Personal exhibitions:
2024 – Agenda 2. «Cherkaski Tyshky ». Kettlesyard. Cambridge. Great Britain.
2024 – Agenda 1. «Deti». Kettlesyard. Cambridge. Great Britain.
2023 – «There are 250,000 white lilies in my garden, yet there is no garden left.». Kunstgarten. Graz. Austria.
2021 – «Pangea (first land)». Malevich bar. Kyiv. Ukraine.
2021 – «Osiris». Municipal Gallery. Kharkiv. Ukraine.
2019 – «Okolotok». Isolation is a platform for cultural initiatives. Kyiv. Ukraine.
2019 – «Okolotok». Vagabundo Underground. Ivano-Frankivsk. Ukraine.
Selected Group exhibition :
2025 – «Serendipitous Events» Organized by the Port of culture on the initiative of UN Women Ukrainian House. Kyiv. Ukraine.
2024 – «Focus Ukraine, Festival LUX». Paris. France.
2024 – «Festival Circulations sur le Pont Saint-Ange [Hors les murs]». Paris. France.
2024 – «Memorialisation. Practices of remembering». Museum of the Second World War. Kyiv. Ukraine.
2024 – «BIRUCHIY contemporary art project. Lima of love». Nontron. France.
2024 – «Focus Ukraine, Festival Circulations». Paris. France.
2024 -«BIRUCHIY – BOROWIEC 433-447». Ukrainski Dom. Warsaw. Poland.
2024 – «Forever and a Day». Melkwegexpo. Amsterdam. Nederland.
2023 – Struggle exhibition organized by Shcherbenko Art Centre within Art Fair in Vilnius, Lithuania.
2023 – «Polyphonie Der Stimmen». Akademie Graz. Graz. Austria.
2023 – «How are you?» exhibition discussion. Ukrainian House. Kyiv. Ukraine.
2023 – BIRUCHIY BOROWIEC «433-447». Muzeum Nadwiślańskie w Kazimierzu Dolnym. Poland.
2023 – «SUN, SUN, ILLUMINATE THE SHADOWS!» Shcherbenko Art Centre Lisbon. Portugal.
2023 – «Kyiv Emerging» Kommunalegalerieberlin. Berlin. Germany.
2022 – «Fokus Körper». Kunsthallegraz. Graz. Austria.
2022 – «Give Me Tomorrow» – Shcherbenko Art Centre & Conceptiсa Lisbon. Portugal.
2022 – «Lost Land» Akademie Graz. Graz. Austria.
2022 – «Art exhibition as KULTPROSTIR» – CLB Berlin. Germany.
2022 – «Light conquers darkness» KULTPROSTIR – Green Hill Gallery Berlin. Germany.
2022 – SAMA KUNSTFESTIVAL. Graz. Austria.
2021 – «Passionate Kryvyi Rih». Museum of History and Local Lore. Krivoy Rog. Ukraine.
2021 – «Sensitivity: Contemporary Ukrainian Photography». Art Arsenal. Kyiv. Ukraine.
2020 – Kyiv Art Week. (Online fair) Kyiv. Ukraine.
2020 – RUDAproject. (According to the results of the Ruda residence in Kryvyi Rih). Cooperative. Kyiv. Ukraine.
2020 – «Boys by girls.» Corners Auction House. Kyiv. Ukraine.
2019 – «Bodies in Movement». Rome. Italy.
2018 – NON-Stop Media. Kharkiv. Ukraine.
2018 – Rum Issue ° III exhibition. Graz. Austria.
2017 – «PhotoJuly». Art Institute Platform. Kyiv. Ukraine.
2017 – «Parallel Kharkiv». Laboratory of Art History. Kharkiv. Ukraine.
2016 – Litoralis as part of Porto Franko Gogol Fest. Ivano-Frankivsk. Ukraine.
Grants:
2025 – Erasmus for Young Entrepreneurs. Matera. Italy.
2022 – Grants or «Small gallery» Graz . Austria.
Publications:
2024 – Aestheticamag. Interconnected Imeges: Circulation(s)Festival.
2024 – UkraineWorld. Story #137: Artist Transforms Her Traumas into Visual Diary.
2024 – Catalog «Flash: Ukrainian wartime photo».
2024 – Catalog «BIRUCHIY BOROWIEC 433-447».
2022 – Flash: Ukrainian wartime photo. Bird In Flight.
2022 – Zeintug Klein “Gut Rise»
2022 – ZOOT Magazine: 15 kilometers
2021 – Grihniza. Issue ° II
2021- Saliut Magazine Issue ° I
2019 – Body as a compromise: Photos by Yevgenia Laptii – Bird In Flight.
Residences:
2025 – Laboratory “Serendipitous Events” Organized by the Port of culture on the initiative of UN Women.Kyiv. Ukraine.
2024 – BIRUCHIY contemporary art project. Lima of love. Nontron. France.
2023 – BIRUCHIY BOROWIEC «433-447». Poland.
2021 – RUDAproject. Krivoy Rog. Ukraine.
2016 – Photo residence «Litoralis» as part of Porto Franko Gogol Fest. Ivano-Frankivsk. Ukraine.