Denis Sarazhin Lion Knight, 2022
Oil on Canvas
64 x 62 inches
Presented by ARCADIA GALLERY
On February 22, 2022, Ukrainian painter Denis Sarazhin and his wife flew from Ukraine to the United States to teach a painting workshop. A day later, Russia invaded his country and bombed his neighborhood of Kiev. His painting studio, location in a nearby town or Kharkiv, was also bombed, making it impossible for him to return to his country or to his studio and retrieve his recent works destined for a one man show in New York.
Flash forward months later and the artist created a Facebook post with one of his paintings still in his studio. An acquaintance of his (and a member of Ukraine’s Safari Combat Unit) reached out to the artist to arrange to travel to his studio and “rescue” his paintings in an effort to save some of the culture of his people. Amidst the bombing and gunfire, Sarazhin’s paintings were rescued and shipped to the United States where they will debut at Seattle Art Fair.
Bio: Denis Sarazhin was born in Nikopol, Ukraine in 1982. He attended the Kharkov Art and Design Academy, graduating in 2008. He specialized in painting and was a pupil of Ganozkiy V. L., Chaus V. N., and Vintayev V. N. Sarazhin was awarded with the 1st Degree Diploma Award for Excellence in Painting from the Ukrainian Art Academy. Since 2007, he has been a member of Kharkov’s section of the association of Ukraine’s Artists’ Alliance.