LUCY NYCHAI

art practitioner, researcher

I feel that my vocation is to stimulate the use of artistic interventions and interactions, in order to encourage a responsible ecosystem of artists and society as a whole. In particular, the ongoing evolution of technology that supports and builds new humanity connecting ancient knowledge with future technologies.
In my curatorial, artistic, and social practices, I always look for the perfect balance between them.

About

Lucy Nychai/ Liudmyla Nychai
Art practitioner, artist, researcher, curator and teacher. Works with the topics of memory and commemoration, sustainable ecosystems, and site-specific projects, and studies ethical issues of digital art.
Co-founder and project curator of Nazar Voitovich Art Residency (NVAIR), Curator of the international program of virtual art residencies Artist is Absent. Ukraine. Co-founder and Project manager of NGO Congress of Culture Activists.
Associate Artist of D6:Culture in Transit, Newcastle, 2023-2025Researches international practices of art residencies and their impact on local and global cultural policies. Facilitator of the Active Citizens program of the British Council. For 2 years, she worked in a team of brand developers for communities in the so-called "grey zone" of Luhansk and Donetsk regions within the framework of the UN project. Has a yearlong practice of the curatorial residency program at D6: Culture in Transit, Newcastle, UK
Get in touch!

Education and training courses

Recent Curatorial Projects

Recent Art Exhibitions

International Conferences:

CURATORIAL PRACTICE

Grounding. Invasion
Izolyacia Foundation, on-line Ukraine
2023

The online residency program Grounding. Invasion invites Ukrainian artists who work with any digital or analog media (sound, installation, photography, painting, video, research, etc.) and are ready to revise the consequences of aggressive military intervention, to pay attention to the ecological state of the country right now. The program will take place in an online educational and artistic format, consisting of a public discussion program with experts in the field of ecology and the post-industrial era, as well as an online residency during which four participants will develop their projects with curatorial and mentoring support. The program will result in an online presentation of art projects and their publication on the website.

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(Re)GROUNDING
Exhibition of research of Karolina Uskakovych and Alexandra Clod
The New Bridge Project, Newcastle, UK

Journeying from the industrial landscapes of Ukraine to former coal mines and community gardens of the North East, artists Alexandra Clod (Krolikowska) and Karolina Uskakovych respond to the climate crisis by exploring the shared industrial past of the UK and Ukraine and its impact today.For the (Re)Grounding exhibition, Alexandra connects her grandfather’s mining heritage and the classical myths of the underworld to the story of coal and its extraction, while Karolina explores human-land relationships during times of war and industrial transformation through gardening.Casting light on the Anthropocene era - where human actions dictate our climate and environmental future, their message is a shared one: to understand where we are coming from in order to nurture the land and our planet and stop the damage that is being done.(Re)Grounding is co-produced by D6 and Kyiv-based IZOLYATSIA, with D6 curator in residence Lucy Nychai and is part of the UK/Ukraine Season of Culture devised jointly by the British Council and the Ukrainian Institute.
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(Re)Grounding.
D6: Culture in Transit, Newcastle
2022-23

(Re)Grounding is a new programme that explores the climate emergency in post-industrial contexts through two research residencies connecting artistic practice, heritage and communities in the UK and Ukraine.
We know the climate crisis spans social, political and environmental injustices that must be addressed to achieve a sustainable future. We are seeing these injustices play out in Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, which is deeply affecting the people and places and destabilising global food and energy markets. We can see the climate crisis impacting people with the least resources to tackle it. We can also look back to the global impact of the industrial revolution on the climate crisis today.
The selected artists Alexandra Clod and Karolina Uskakovych take these interconnections, asking what must be done to bring about the drastic change needed to limit the increase in rising temperatures. The programme includes two research residencies and an exhibition connecting practice, heritage and communities between the UK and Ukraine.

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Book of the dead. Alexander Krolikowski.
GIsela gallery. Berlin
2022

Documentary photo, project idea Alexander Krolikowski (UA)
Sound: Mykyta Gavrylenko (UA), Mykola Shostov (UA)
Video Artist Talk, shooting and editing: Paul Shpil (UA)
Curating: Lucy Nychai (UA)
Co-Curating: Dmytro Goncharenko (UA/DE)
The “Book of the Dead” is a cultural documentary artefact, a rethinking of the artistic experience. It is possible that in the future, this artefact will become anthropological material for studying the confrontation of ideologies at the expense of civilians of Ukraine. The aim of the project is to translate the experience of a morgue volunteer into a holistic statement in the language of art – to make the horrible occurrences real on an emotional level, to provoke reflections outside of geopolitics and propaganda. The creator of the project is the artist Alexander Krolikowski, who worked for three and a half weeks after the liberation of Kyiv as a volunteer in the morgue of Vyshgorod, where the tortured bodies of innocent victims of Russian aggression were taken care of.
According to the latest estimates, 1290 residents of the Kyiv region were deliberately killed by the Russian occupiers.
From the author: "The Book of the Dead" is a synthesis of instant photography during volunteer work with the bodies of the dead civilians of Bucha, poetic instant photography, and my own memories of meeting death. "Book of the Dead" is a metamodern iconography of one of the most important events in human’s life -Death, through the prism of the Russian-Ukrainian war. Death is an event that created or destroyed meaning for all previous generations of people. And each generation of artists created a portrait of their era, describing the attitude toward death. The memory of the dead is not needed by the dead themselves, we, the living, need it to draw conclusions and learn to value our own lives and the lives of others.”
By support of Goethe Institute and GISELA - Freier Kunstraum Lichtenberg

Collective Ukraine. Exhibition of CryptoArt Ukraine. (Co-curation)
Side ivent. WEB Summit, Lisbon
2022

Collective Ukraine is a unique NFT collection from Ukrainian crypto artists on the NEAR blockchain. Featuring well-known artists in cryptoart scene and perspective newcomers with impressive stories in the traditional art world.

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Internal Elements.
NVAIR, Ukraine
2022

The project began as an experimental digital art program. Together we studied and mastered new opportunities for implementation. Learned to create NFT collections and virtual galleries. We created Twitter accounts and got acquainted with the CryptoArt Ukraine community. We have internally displaced persons and residents of the NVAIR emergency program, who are going through war together in an art residence in Ukraine. Several months ago we met again to create a new world together, a new shelter, and at the same time a new project.
The reaction to premonitions, fear, and any changes are different, but we create art in any situation. It unites us and gives us the strength to live life in difficulties. We have become a little different and ready to talk about it.
“Now I live in the same shelter with artists and IDPs in Western Ukraine. Everyone had a history before the war, but now we are living a new life together with our families.
The whole world around becomes more cruel, fragile, and uncertain. But we decided to resist hatred and destruction, support others and share kindness. It is psychologically difficult for everyone to realize that dear people are in danger, but we hold on, “like a locker, a dog and a cat.” We will share what we are strong in. Intuition, love, healing, and consequent self-confidence, trust, and unity.”
Lucy Nychai, program curator and artist
The project currently has 4 authors and 4 series of digital works. While the war continues, the collection will be replenished with new authors and works.Artists:
Lucy Nychai
Olexandra Pavlovska
Karina Sofit
PaulShpil

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Artist is Absent in 2022. Global cohort.
Online