Close from afar

This project is about the silence between people. About bodily presence, about glances without explanation, about connections that are often felt deeper than words.

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I am interested in moments in which people do not play roles.
When they simply are. Standing, sitting, holding, looking.
I paint these states not as great events, but as an honest presence in space.
This is an attempt to see a person as they are: with their doubts, hopes, and vulnerability.

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The key for me is the concept of internal stigmatization - when we impose imaginary limitations, doubts, fears on ourselves.
My characters are often silent, but in their poses and gestures, you can feel something fragile, familiar.
I paint not heroes, but those present. Not drama - but an internal state.

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These images are often simple, as if childish.
Because I am close to a naive, soft vision - the kind that comes from childhood, when we haven't yet had time to teach what is "normal" and what is "different".
This is an attempt to see the good in everyone, not for beautiful gestures, but simply for the very fact of presence.

My experience is shaped by a double reality.

On the one hand - a rural childhood, everyday life, a garden, apples, land, routine.
On the other hand, a culture that seemed different, distant: Western, in particular, African-American culture.
My friends would visit from America, bringing music, films, and style.
It was magical, completely different. But it shaped me. And just like everything local, it became a part of me.

The dark-skinned images in my works are not exterior. They are not "otherness". They are me. It is part of what shaped my vision.

Now it doesn't seem distant. It is familiar, my own.
And I don't think about whether I have the right to draw it. It just comes out.

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Close from afar is about how distances disappear if you look closely.

How what once seemed fictional becomes a part of your inner world.

How the simple — the bodily, the everyday, the seemingly ordinary — retains depth.

It is about tenderness towards a person.

About the right to be.

And about how the real is almost always silent.

BIO

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Mykhailo Piskur was born in 1995 in Ukraine, lives in Rivne.

 - A residence in the Carpathians, the result of which was an exhibition.

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The main themes explored by the artist include human relationships, self-belief, and the diverse positioning of individuals in society.

The concept of internal stigma is key in the artist works.

Simplicity and naivety in the images resemble genuine childlike perception, sensitivity, and the search for good qualities in every person.

Capturing routine moments that, filled with lightness, become an awareness of the fleeting nature of life and the importance of rejoicing and focusing on the good. Cultivating the ability to find joy in the little things.

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I am interested in what usually passes by - how people sit, touch, and are silent.
I look at the body not as an object, but as a story.
I do not paint the ideal, but the present.

These works are about everyday life, which we do not always notice, but in which there is everything: care, fatigue, peace, attention.
I want to preserve these moments - without embellishment, but with respect.

This is an attempt to see life as it is.
And to allow yourself to be in it - simply, truly.

Sometimes it seems that everything is most important in silence.
In the way people are present.
In the way they are.

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I have always been interested in people. Not images in my head, but living ones — with a body, silence, memories.
In my works, I look at how we exist side by side: in relationships, distance, and internal conversations with ourselves.
I am especially interested in how we stigmatize ourselves. Not external labels, but those that sit quietly inside. I want to see them — not to judge, but to understand.

I grew up in a village. But in parallel, there was another reality — Western culture, especially African-American music, films, style, and TV programs.
This was my imaginary world. Friends came from America and brought something very distant and very special.
At the time, I did not realize how much it influenced me. And now — I understand: this culture has become a part of me, just like my childhood in the garden, the smell of apples, the earth under my nails.

In my works, there is no clear boundary where something comes from. Everything just flows naturally into the images.
The people in my paintings are often dark-skinned, because such a perception is organic to me. It is not a gesture, not a concept. It is part of my experience, my memory.

My images are simple. Sometimes naive, like the drawings from childhood. But this naivety is honest. It is about trying to see something good in everyone.
About attention. About presence. About peace, in which you can be yourself.

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CV​​

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• 2025 - “«the art of living”, Shevchenko Museum, subjectiv, Kyiv, Ukraine.

• 2025 - Book&Art Fest 2025, Gulliver, Kyiv, Ukraine.

• 2024 - subjectiv, art verse, Pari, France.

• 2023 - “artists were here”, Avangarden, Kyiv, Ukraine.

• 2024 - subjectiv, art verse, Pari, France​​​