Nikita Kadan
The work of Nikita Kadan (born 1982 in Kiev) centers on his artistic exploration of post-communist social and political developments, and their origins and causes in the Soviet system. The artist is a sensitive and critical observer and interpreter of historical shifts, and also of the connections and continuities between the communist past and turbo-capitalist present. As a major figure of the Ukrainian art scene, Nikita Kadan has become the voice and witness of the Ukrainian situation since the beginning of the war provoked by the Russian forces in March 2022. Nikita Kadan is a member of the artist group R.E.P. (Revolutionary Experimental Space) since 2004 and co-founder and member of the curatorial group and activities HUDRADA since 2008. Graduated from the National Academy of Fine Arts in Kiev, where he studied monumental painting, he now works with installation, graphic design, painting, wall drawings and posters in the city, sometimes in interdisciplinary collaboration with architects, human rights activists and sociologists.
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Nikita Kadan has recently had important solo and group exhibitions : “Artists in Time of War” at Castello di Rivoli (Turin, Italy), “Skin and Shell” at the Lewben Foundation in Vilnius (Lithuania) and “The Fire and the Ashes” at the Museum Sztuki in 2023. In 2021, the Pinchuk Art Centre in Kyiv (Ukraine) devotes a major solo exhibition to him, pursuing the initiative of the MUMOK (Vienna, AT), which holds its first institutional and international solo exhibition in 2019. His works were also shown at M HKA Antwerp in 2018, which invited him again o the occasion of the 59th Venice Biennale in 2022 for the exhibition “Imagine Ukraine”, in collaboration with the PinchukArtCentre of Kiev. Nikita Kadan became the winner of the Pinchuk Art Centre Prize in 2011 and the Special Prize of the Future Generation Art Prize in 2014 and he participated in the Ukrainian Pavilion at the Venice Biennale in 2015 and 2022. He will take part in the next Matter of Art Biennial in Prague in summer 2024, and will be part of the group show at the Victor Pinchuk Foundation (Kyiv), selected by the curator of the 60th Venice Biennale International Art Exhibition in 2024.
His works are now in numerous collections around the world, including the Tate Modern, London (UK), the Centre Pompidou, Paris (FR), the Thyssen-Bornemisza Art Contemporary Foundation (TBA21), the KADIST Foundation, Paris (FR), the National Art Museum in Kiev (Ukraine), the Pinakothek der Moderne in Munich (Germany), the MuHKa Museum Contemporary Art of Antwerp (Belgium), the FRAC of Brittany (France), the Center for Contemporary Art Luigi Pecci of Prato (Italy), the Military History Museum of Dresden (Germany), the Krasnoyark Museum Centre of Krasnoyark (Russia) as well as the Kingdom of Belgium, Ministery of Foreign Affairs (Belgium)
In 2020, the Galerie Poggi held its first solo exhibition in Paris, titled The Day of Blood.
Works
![Nikita Kadan, The March [Torchild Marche ], 2020, Charcoal on paper, 59,5 x 42,2 cm](https://galeriepoggi.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/08/Nikita-Kadan-The-March-Torchild-Marche-2020-763x1024.jpg)
![Nikita Kadan, The Model Falling Apart [Yermilov], 2017, Charcoal on free paper, 197 x 150 cm](https://galeriepoggi.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/08/Nikita-Kadan-The-Model-Falling-Apart-Yermilov-2017.jpg)
![Nikita Kadan, Bouquet [Narbut], 2017, Charcoal on free paper, 197 x 150 cm](https://galeriepoggi.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/08/Nikita-Kadan-Bouquet-Narbut-2017.jpg)
![Nikita Kadan, The Mask [Lenin], 2020, Charcoal on paper, 59,5 x 42,2 cm](https://galeriepoggi.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/08/Nikita-Kadan-The-Mask-Lenin-2020-736x1024.jpg)
News & Press
Exhibitions at the Gallery
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The Last Museum
May 16 - August 2, 2025
Babi Badalov, To Walk, to Work, to Die
February 9 - March 9, 2024
The First Stone
October 13 - December 2, 2023
Ecce Homo
02 Jul. – 13 Aug. 2022
L’Obscur vient au Jour, Group Show
24 Jun. – 30 Jul. 2022
Nikita Kadan, The Day of Blood
8 dec. 2020 - 15 jan. 2021
The Border is a State of Mind
October 13 – November 16, 2018
Babi Badalov, De More Cry Sea
24 Mar. – 27 May. 2018
