An artist’s journey from Ukraine to Asheville

When local artist Andrea Kulish, a first-generation Ukrainian American, was introduced to Anatolii Tarasiuk, a Ukrainian refugee and artist living in the Triangle area, there was an immediate connection.

Seeing his work and hearing his compelling story, Kulish knew she had to arrange an exhibition in Asheville. The show, Embrace the Journey, opens with a reception on Friday, Aug. 23, 5-8 p.m., at Pink Dog Gallery, 348 Depot St. The work will remain on display through Sunday, Sept. 22. 

When it came to titling the exhibit, “Anatolii gave me the names of two of his paintings and asked me which I liked best,” Kulish says. “Embrace the Journey resonated with me more, and he said, ‘Let’s go with that.’”

The title work, Tarasiuk recalls, began with a layer of purple paint that was swiftly covered with sweeping vertical lines. Near the end of the process, a streak of purple revealed itself at the center of the canvas. 

“It looks like a crack with the light coming through,” he says. 

For Jeremy Phillips, an artist whose studio is located in Pink Dog, Tarasiuk’s abstract-expressionist works are compelling and complex. “It’s about the paint and the color and the forms and the shapes and the quality of the brushstrokes,” he says. Within all this, he continues, “There’s often a kind of a story.”

Rocky and rewarding 

Since leaving his home in Kyiv, Tarasiuk’s personal journey has been both rocky and rewarding. When Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022, restrictions were placed on travel for most of the country’s men, ages 18-60. But because Tarasiuk and his wife had two young children with a third on the way, they were eligible to apply to the U.S. program Uniting for Ukraine.

Tarasiuk and his young family initially lived on a church property in the Raleigh-Durham area, before they found permanent housing. 

In addition to acclimating to their new surroundings, Tarasiuk was dealing with a recent cancer diagnosis, which he received two weeks before his family’s flight to the U.S. “Actually was a big shock, because I was told it’s going to be hard to treat it in the United States because of not having insurance. So the first couple months for us was quite rough.” 

Ultimately, a friend recommended Duke Cancer Center in Durham, where he underwent treatment. 

It was during this time, Tarasiuk says, that he found his artistic footing. Self-taught, Tarasiuk began painting when he was 15 and went on to exhibit his work in Ukraine while working as a video and sound engineer. 

Among the items he brought stateside were 45 original pieces. His biggest fear was getting the box through customs. 

“It was a miracle,” he says. “No customs agent ever asked me to open it and show it to them. Oh, that would [have been] a disaster, because it was so tightly rolled.” 

Key connections

Tarasiuk credits Becky Woodruff, co-owner of the Frame & Print Shop in Chapel Hill,  as the “key person in my artistic journey here.” When he took some of his paintings to her to have them restretched, she was intrigued by his work and his story and offered him space to host his first exhibition in North Carolina, New Beginnings.

The show’s exposure resulted in Tarasiuk securing a free studio space at Eno Arts Mill, an arts center in West Hillsborough managed by the Orange County Arts Commission. 

While there, Tarasiuk made another key connection with fellow artist Onicas Gaddis, who knew Kulish.  

“When Anatolii told me he was from Ukraine and recently had to flee the country because of the war,” says Gaddis, who now lives in Asheville, “I thought he should meet Andrea [Kulish] to see if she could help him get into the Asheville art scene. His story touched me in such a way that I wanted to try and help him get connected in the RAD to sell some of his paintings so he could continue to provide for his family.”

From nature scenes to abstract expressionism

In discussing his work, Tarasiuk identifies as an abstract expressionist, the nonrepresentational style developed by American painters in the 1940s and ’50s. The style uses big, gestural brushstrokes and expansive markings to give the impression of the artist working spontaneously.

Some of his earliest experiments with the form occurred when he was a teenager after he found a stash of oil paints that belonged to his father. 

“It started with me trying to copy some nature scenes that my mom used to collect,” he says. “And then one day, somehow I let myself put some abstract detail on the scenery. I was like, ‘Oh, my God, what is it?’ It was so strange. But since that painting, everything was abstract. I never, ever did the natural scenery anymore.”

Spontaneity is key to Tarasiuk’s method. “I never have in mind what I’m about to do,” he says. “I just start with a kind of a palette, whatever colors I feel  drawn to today.” 

Only when the work is finished does the artist begin to see what his painting is about. The title, he says, comes last. And in the case of his upcoming exhibit, the title captures Tarasuik’s indomitable spirit. 

WHAT: Embrace the Journey,
WHERE: Pink Dog Gallery, 348 Depot St., free
WHEN: Friday, Aug. 23-Sunday, Sept. 22, avl.mx/bux