Untitled 2022

This drawing was made by Alevtyna Kakhidze in 2021 with felt tip pens. It seems like an urgent diagram, a page torn from a sketchbook, or a thought bubble made visible. I can feel the artist's hand moving quickly, outlining faces and printing words, crossing things out. There's Julia on one side, and someone named O. Volkov on the other. The portraits are simple, almost childlike, yet they convey a sense of character. It looks like Volkov got 9 years. Julia, 13. In the middle, a man's portrait framed in red with a cross through it - the victim? It reminds me of the way artists like Guston, Picasso, and Twombly used drawing as a form of thinking, a way to work through ideas and emotions in real-time. It’s like Kakhidze is having a conversation with herself, or maybe with us, about justice, accountability, and the complexities of human experience. It makes me wonder what other artists in the Ukraine are thinking about right now.