Frontline Females: An Art Weekend for Ukraine

Fundraising Art Festival featuring women artists from frontline states, art, weaving and jewellery workshops and live music.

SAVE THE DATE!

FRONTLINE FEMALES ART WEEKEND

Join us for a Charitable Ukrainian Art Weekend where creativity, solidarity and purpose come together.

Women artists whose homelands have been affected by war come together to share powerful work shaped by resilience and lived experience. Through art, craft and music, this weekend invites you to connect, create and support meaningful humanitarian work.

Original concept by Phil Strongman, developed in collaboration with exhibition curators Olga Brown and Evengelina Rouse, with the Saturday concert organised in partnership with the Nights for Ukraine series.

📅 WHEN

Friday 30 January – Sunday 1 February

📍 WHERE

Candid Arts Trust – Candid Arts Centre
Angel, Islington
3 Torrens St, London EC1V 1NQ

What to Expect

Powerful art by
Vlada Buchko, Sashka, Khrystyna Ivaniuk-Khmil, Uliana Shcherbak, Olga Brown and Tetyana Frey.

FRIDAY

Exhibition opening with wine reception, live drawing, VR-art and live music — setting a vibrant and welcoming tone.

SATURDAY

Immersive art with Khrystyna Ivaniuk-Khmil, followed by a special Nights for Ukraine concert featuring Mariia Petrovska and Nazar Lekh — the acclaimed bandura and Ukrainian flute duo — alongside other artists, interweaving music and poetry.

SUNDAY

Weaving and jewellery workshops led by participating artists Liana Listunova and Kateryna Lohvynenko. You will leave the workshops with a one-of-a-kind, ready-to-wear necklace or bracelet, or a bookmark to treasure - handmade by you, inspired by Ukraine 🇺🇦

Whether you take part in workshops or simply experience the exhibition and music, the weekend offers space for reflection and shared creativity.

🎟 Important Information

• Book individual events or select multiple events at a discounted rate
• Saturday & Sunday: two events on the same day for the price of one
• Saturday & Sunday: entry to view the artworks only (without workshops or the concert) is FREE OF CHARGE

🕒 TIMETABLE & TICKETS

Three Day Pass - £40

Two Day Pass - £30

Friday 30 Jan - £15
6–9 pm – Exhibition launch, wine reception, live drawing & live music by violinist Olena Holovchenko, joining us especially for this event

Saturday 31 Jan - £20
11 am–6 pm – Exhibition viewing
1–4 pm – Immersive art workshop (all materials provided, no experience needed)
5–6 pm – Nights for Ukraine concert with Mariia, Nazar and … let us surprise you!

Sunday 1 Feb - £20
11 am–6 pm – Exhibition viewing
12–1 pm – Weaving workshop (all materials provided, no experience needed)
1–3 pm – Jewellery workshop (all materials provided, no experience needed)

All proceeds support UAID’s humanitarian mission, delivering aid and vital assistance to communities affected by the war in Ukraine.

Come for the art. Stay for the connection. Leave knowing you’ve supported a cause that matters.

📩 Questions? Contact info@uaid.org.uk

We look forward to seeing you!

#uaid

ABOUT THE ARTISTS

Painting; oils on canvas + prints by Vlada Buchko (Ukraine)

As a much-acclaimed painter Ms Buchko's works have been exhibited throughout Kyiv. She's also a musician & singer who has toured Ukraine and raised funds for Ukrainian Army medics. Her Chaos Maidan painting has featured in several documentary films and has been compared with Picasso's Guernica. This Art Festival is the first time Vlada Buchko's work has been exhibited outside of Ukraine.

Paintings; oils / acrylic on canvas by Sashka (Lithuania)

Sashka is based on an 'art farm' in Hungary but she's a constant visitor to both Ukraine, London and her Lithuanian homeland. Her colourful and dynamic paintings and sketches have been exhibited in several locations but this Art Festival is the first time her work has been seen in the UK or Western Europe.

Installations / paintings / VR-art by Khrystyna Ivaniuk-Khmil (Ukraine)

Ms Ivaniuk-Khmil is a young Ukrainian, now based in London, a limited selection of her innovative installation - and visual - artwork has been exhibited at the Muse Gallery, the XYZ Gallery, the Portobellonista and at the Dulwich Festival. Her work is a mixture of neo-classical finery, stark paintings and abrupt war-influenced graphics. She will create an interactive illustration session at the launch evening. Her husband is currently a frontline soldier in Ukraine.

Paintings / prints by Uliana Shcherbak (Ukraine)

Ms Shcherbak is a multidisciplinary artist currently pursuing a BA in Fine Art at Central Saint Martins. Working primarily in oil painting and printmaking, her practice is grounded in personal history and cultural memory. A displaced Ukrainian, Shcherbak uses her work to confront loss, displacement, and identity, telling the story of her country through a deeply personal lens. Her practice insists on attention—inviting viewers not only to look, but to remember Ukraine and its culture.

Paintings on russian missile shells by Tetyana Frey (Ukraine)

Ms Frey creates unique art objects which are actually made by painting on the artillery shells used by Russian forces to attack her homeland. Her paintings are a stark yet hopeful translation of the phrase 'swords into ploughshares' i.e. the medium is the message. She has previously exhibited her work at the Chelsea Theatre, FarSight and XYZ galleries.

CURATORS
Olga Brown is an award-winning British-Ukrainian artist, a graduate of the Academy of Fine Art in Lviv, Ukraine. In the recent past she has won the Chelsea Art Society Agnes Reeve Award as well as prizes from the Great Art Award, Hesketh Hubbard Art Society and the Society of Women Artists at the Mall Galleries.

She has had her work exhibited extensively across the UK and overseas including at prestigious galleries such as Cork Street, The Mall Galleries and the Royal College of Art.

Evangeline Rouse is a RCA graduate currently working in film at the Imperial War Museum. Her specialities are female histories and narratives as well as the art, film and ephemera produced during past and contemporary conflicts.

ABOUT THE MUSICIANS

MARIIA PETROVSKA & NAZAR LEKH

🎵 Mariia Petrovska – a striking bandura artist and vocalist, uniting voice and strings in Ukraine’s timeless tradition. Blending masterful technique with a pure, emotive voice, she brings fresh energy to traditional Ukrainian music while also performing her own contemporary songs. A multi-award-winning musician, Mariia moved to the UK after the russian invasion and now studies songwriting and performance at the British and Irish Modern Music Institute in Manchester. She uses her music as a voice for Ukraine, leading the volunteer organisation People’s Territory of Happiness and performing with Cultural Forces. Recent highlights include performances near the frontline in Ukraine and on the Eurovision Village stage in Liverpool (2023), at London’s Finborough Theatre (2024) and her first solo concert at The Harrison (2025).

🎵Nazar Lekh is a professional sopilka (Ukrainian folk flute) player and multi-instrumentalist, proficient in playing more than twenty instruments. Throughout his career, he has been a member of numerous ensembles — folk, contemporary, and academic — with which he has actively toured across Europe (in more than fifteen countries). He is a laureate of international competitions and festivals, a musician of the TV show “My Roots” with Olya Polyakova, and a member of the Eurovision sensation, the band Go_A.

OLENA HOLOVCHENKO

🎵 Olena is a celebrated violinist and violist. Trained in Ukraine, she is now based in Peterborough, performing across the UK and collaborating with other musicians, alongside teaching violin.