Interview: Inga Levi | Ukraine

The ICBSS has conducted a series of online interviews with women artists from the Black Sea, who shared insights into their work through their contributions.

 

Inga Levi, Mosaicist | Ukraine

Please introduce yourself to our audience. Share with us some key information about yourself and your career, such as your educational background, participation in events like festivals or exhibitions, and any awards you have received.

I studied book illustration at the Publishing Faculty of Kyiv Polytechnical University and graduated in 2011. In 2021, I studied Contemporary Art at Kyiv Academy of Media Arts, and in 2024 graduated from the Intermedia Faculty of the Academy of Fine Arts in Gdańsk, Poland, with a master's degree. For an additional education, I participated in the Laboratory of Commemoration Practices (Ukraine) in 2024 and completed the Practicum on art, memory, and history at the Kyiv Academy of Media Arts in 2025.

I was a recipient of the “Gaude Polonia” scholarship from the Ministry of Culture and National Heritage of Poland in 2021. I was a resident of the “Extended Workshop” program at Łaźnia Centre for Contemporary Art, Gdańsk, in 2022; What lasts longer than HOPE? in Cyprus, and Bosnia–Ukraine. Reporting From the Future in Sarajevo, Bosnia & Herzegovina, in 2024.

Since 2015, I have been a member of the group for preservation of the photo archive of the Hutsul artist Paraska Plytka-Horytsvit and the co-author of the idea of the exhibition of her artistic heritage Overcoming Gravity. Paraska Plytka-Horytsvit in Mystetskyi Arsenal, Kyiv, Ukraine.

In 2018–2019, I was a curator and mosaicist involved in the restoration of the mosaic fountain at the Kyiv Palace of Children and Youth Stars and Constellations (1963–65, by A. Rybachuk and V. Melnichenko). In 2021, I held the same roles in the restoration of mosaics at the Kyiv Central Bus Station (1960–61, by the same authors).

In 2025, I co-curated 4 Quarters on Podil in Kyiv: Between Utopia and Reality, a public program by the National Art Museum of Ukraine and Muzeum Osiedli Mieszkanoiwych from Lublin, Poland, held in Kyiv, Ukraine.

I am featured in Secondary Archive, a platform for women artists from Central and Eastern Europe. The book with my illustrations (Vasyl Holoborodko’s “A glove full of verses”) was signified in the international book-catalogue White Ravens, 2011.

I have had around 14 solo exhibitions, among them Comfort zone, Gaude Polonia program, Gallery Labirynt 2, Lublin, Poland, in 2021; Double Exposure, DIG Awards, Modena, Italy, in 2023; and the most recent Yaw-roll-pitch, Kiosk with Art, Lublin, Poland, in 2025.

I also participated in around 60 group exhibitions, including How Are You?, Ukrainskyi Dim, Kyiv, Ukraine; Documenting Ukraine: Bearing Witness To War, IWM Library and Bildraum Studio, Wien, Austria; Who Holds Up the Sky?, Museum of Fine Arts Boston, USA, in 2023; and Piazza Ucraina, La Biennale di Venezia, Venice, Italy, in 2022.

Tell us about the art form(s) you work on. Share with us some interesting information about the creative process.

I work with graphics, painting, installation, and transdisciplinary arts. My interest in urban space, architecture, and monumental art was reflected in my artistic practice as work with urban landscape, mosaic, and activism for preserving monumental art pieces. Since 2022, I have mostly developed projects related to war and memory.

I often work site-specifically, building the image according to the context of the place. Such were my installations and the mosaic in Lublin, Nida, Grodzisk Mazowiecki, and the exhibition in Łódź. I start from the historical layers or visual markers of the place where I work, and intertwine them with the topic that concerns me, building a narrative and image to highlight and make them visible and personal for everyone.

It also thrills me to make one place somehow present in another. This can be said both about my war-time graphic series Double Exposure, where I overlapped two realities, as well as about my last exhibition with a frontline landscape diorama built in a kiosk on the outskirts of Lublin. Even in my earlier graphic pastel works, the unexpected recognition of one place in another, like when the light makes a Kyiv yard look like it’s in Japan, always triggered me to work.

When I worked with urban landscapes, I never worked in the studio. I would take a big folder with paper and pastels to the plain air, find a spot to sit, mostly on the ground, and draw intensely for several hours. Pastels let me work fast; it was my main technique for a decade. Since then, this low spot has become very important for me philosophically; things and people are far more eloquent when you look at them a bit from below, almost unnoticeable.

Now things have changed, and so has my approach. Since the full-scale war, I couldn’t let myself paint, and after three years I am only now trying to start painting again, this time in the studio.

If you had to present us just one of your artworks, which one would you select? Share with us the details and the message you want to communicate through this artwork.

I would definitely present Double Exposure, my graphic series depicting the war. Since 26 February 2022 and for three years, I have daily depicted an overlap of two accounts – the scenes I witnessed while navigating relatively safe routes in and out of Ukraine and the media images and reports in the news and on social media covering the Russian war of aggression against my country. I used square-format notebooks and a pencil, sticking with the set I started with on the day Russia attacked my country. However, I stopped drawing on the third anniversary of the full-scale war due to nervous exhaustion, a change in the nature of the war and my return home after spending time abroad, which eliminated the dichotomy captured in the series. The series comprises over one thousand drawings and has been exhibited around the world approximately thirty times.

Women artists still face many barriers and disparities. What inspires you to continue being creative and staying focused on doing what you love?

Things have changed immensely in Ukraine lately. I must admit that I now even feel too privileged as a woman. While war rages on, I can still freely choose whether to practise art or join the military, which is a privilege that my male colleagues unfortunately do not have. Nevertheless, some of my female colleagues have joined the army alongside men. After several attempts to master the basics of military specialties, practising art feels like a luxury. Moreover, this contrast has reinforced my sense of artistic calling. When I have doubts, the reason and excuse (considering what I have written above) for continuing as an artist is that I am periodically receiving requests for my skills, which I am pleased to accept.

Art can be a catalyst for intercultural dialogue, gender equality and social inclusion. What is your vision for the role of your work in addressing these issues?

During my time living abroad from 2022 to 2024, I used my art to encourage intercultural dialogue, primarily with the "Double Exposure" series, and some other projects ("Condition for the Miracle"; "Vent hobn oyern, un gosn hobn oygn"; "Ver ken dos itst leyenen / Who can read it now?"; "My Regards to Wojciech Weiss"), which intertwine Ukrainian, Polish, and Jewish (due to my origins) topics and cultural features, as well as heritage. Now, while working in Ukraine, social inclusion has become one of the topics I focus on. One way of addressing this issue indirectly is to reflect on the psychological impact of war on individuals through art. As an expression of shared experiences, art can often act as a healing tool. One of the topics that I am interested in and now work on is physical inclusion, accessibility and acceptance of veterans with injuries and amputations in society. Two projects that address these issues are currently in progress.

Is there anything else that you would like to discuss?

Feel free to explore my art!

Sources & Photographs:

https://soniakh.com/index.php/2022/10/24/double-exposure-i-community/

https://www.facebook.com/ingaleviart/

https://www.instagram.com/ingalevi/

https://www.behance.net/ingaidajelev

https://www.saatchiart.com/ingailev

Photograph No 1: Inga Levi

Photograph No 2: Yaw-Roll-Pitch

Photograph No 3: Stained Glass A Poplar Tree in the Evening Sun (2023)

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

Special thanks go to Ms. Inga Levi for generously sharing her valuable insights with the ICBSS.

The ICBSS also extends its sincere appreciation to Ms. Tetiana Druzhchenko, Head of the Foresight Sector at the Research Service of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine, for facilitating this meaningful connection.

DISCLAIMER

This post was prepared by the International Centre for Black Sea Studies (ICBSS). It reflects the views of the interviewees only and does not necessarily represent the views of ICBSS or its affiliated institutions. The ICBSS cannot be held responsible for any use of the information contained herein.

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