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Light beneath the ground
In this project, the subconscious is explored as a living language of communication between a person and the world — one in which intuition, dreams, touch, chance, and faith intersect.
This kind of communication does not divide the human and the non-human, the material and the spiritual, as it operates on the level of sensations and intuitive imagery.
Light Beneath the Ground is a kind of archaeology of the subconscious: through the material process of creation, what emerges are not merely images but traces of contact — a map of sensory experience. The works combine painting, clay, wood, canvas, textiles, and graphics as if these materials were inseparable, living participants in the creative process.
In the artworks, religious and sacred motifs intertwine with personal myths, while invisible forces are present in the simplest, most ordinary things — trees, algae, and fruits. The portraits and self-portraits in this series represent maps of states rather than specific individuals. The artist turns to the subconscious as a shared human and non-human experience — an opportunity to live through contact beyond the limits of verbal communication. It is a dialogue in which humans, plants, animals, fungi, spirits, birds, and the earth itself are interlocutors.
ABOUT THE ARTIST
Maryna Levchenko is a multidisciplinary artist from Chernihiv, Ukraine, who currently lives and works in Lviv. She works across various visual media, including graphics, painting, photography, video art, and installation. Her practice explores themes of space, human fragility, memory, and the sense of home. Her works often merge architectural and natural heritage with traditional crafts, textiles, plastics, and recycled materials to investigate the relationship between individual experience and nature.
Maryna studied graphic design at Lviv Polytechnic National University and architecture at the Taras Shevchenko State Art School, later continuing her education through international programs and courses in visual art, urbanism, and video art.
She has participated in numerous group exhibitions, including Vypadkovi podii at Ukrainskyi Dim (Ukraine); DIA Kinets at ZIEGEL Gallery, Graz (Austria); Greifbar: Krieg im Blick ukrainischer Künstler at Saarlandmuseum Moderne Galerie (Germany); Case sugli alberi (Italy); Borderlands (Poland); 31 Art Space, Lviv (Ukraine); and the White Stork Synagogue, Wrocław (Poland).
In addition, she held a solo exhibition, Dwellies, at Halle6 in Germany. Maryna has participated in artist residencies organized by the Artists at Risk program (Munich), La Kunsthalle Mulhouse, Dom Ukraiński in Przemyśl, and the Lviv Art Center. She also collaborates with organizations focused on cultural heritage, ecology, and social change.
