LISOSTEP IN THE CITY BY MAKHNO STUDIO

Last week in Kyiv, a presentation of the LISOSTEP collection of ceramic sculptures by MAKHNO studio took place.

What is a lisostep? It is a transitional zone between mixed forests and steppe. A place where two worlds meet. It is here that something new is born – deep, quivering and real.

LISOSTEP is an intuitive reaction of artists to the crucial time in which we all live. It is a collection of artistic allegories that leave room for imagination. Someone will see familiar silhouettes from childhood in the forms – a path in the field, a tree on the horizon, a gust of wind in the grass. And we see the fingers with which nature gently touches us, as if reminding us of itself.

The authors of the collection, Serhii Denysenko and Viacheslav Odarchenko, turned this invisible border between worlds into an artistic language.

Serhii Denysenko is a legend of Ukrainian ceramics, a former chief artist of the Vasylkiv Majolica Factory. His works are kept in museums all over Ukraine. He was inspired by the beauty of his native nature, which he reinterpreted in the context of the Ukrainian contemporary style.

Viacheslav Odarchenko is a leading ceramist and partner of MAKHNO Studio, a master who works with clay as a living matter that has its own soul.

In LISOSTEP, everything is real: earthy colors, natural textures, traditional techniques, including angoba painting.

This is a special technique of applying pigments not with a brush but with a pear-shaped sponge. The paint doesn’t just lie on the surface of the clay – it rubs into its essence. To do this on a vertical plane is a separate art that requires a deep sense of the material, its mood, moisture and rhythm.

“This collection is a harbinger of new times and new changes. In addition, it is our Forest Song in ceramics,” says Tatiana Ivanochko, CEO of MAKHNO Studio.