Art at the Institute

The Ukrainian Institute of America presents a profound and timely exhibition: Marian Icons on Ammo Boxes, featuring nine sacred works – the latest cycle of an ongoing project – by Kyiv-based artist-iconographers Sofia Atlantova, Oleksandr Klymenko, and Herman Klymenko. Opened on March 6, 2026, and continuing through March 29, this installation marks both the artists’ debut at the UIA and the American premiere of these powerful pieces.

Since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine first in 2014, the nation has endured immeasurable loss. Among the most vulnerable are mothers and children – tens of thousands of Ukrainian children remain held in Russian captivity. It is against this backdrop of suffering that Ukrainian artists Sofia Atlantova, Oleksandr Klymenko – and later joined by Herman Klymenko – conceived a visionary artistic response.

In 2014, visiting a military base in Donbas, Oleksandr Klymenko observed a striking similarity: the wooden lids and bottoms of discarded ammunition boxes resembled the traditional boards upon which Orthodox Christian icons have been painted for centuries. This epiphany sparked a project of profound symbolic power. By transforming these remnants of warfare into canvases for sacred imagery, the artists have enacted a material and spiritual alchemy – converting instruments of death into vehicles of hope.

The resulting icons merge seemingly irreconcilable elements. Ancient Byzantine traditions – rendered in the flattened perspective and spiritual gravity of medieval masters – meet the harsh materiality of contemporary conflict. Each painted fragment bears witness to real destruction, real violence, and real loss. Yet upon these scarred surfaces, the artists have rendered the Mother of God with Child, an image transcending ecclesiastical interpretation to become an archetypal symbol of protection, innocence, and enduring love. Motherhood itself becomes an anti-war statement. When the Theotokos appears on an ammunition box, she transforms what once symbolized death into a representation of life itself. This exhibition’s Marian icons cycle, dedicated to Ukrainian children abducted and held in captivity by the Russian state, amplifies an unconditional message: Salvation through the triumph of maternal care over the machinery of war.

Since 2015, this long-term project has raised over $300,000, funding mobile hospitals and medical aid for the Ukrainian frontline military and civilians alike. The artists’ previous icon cycles traveled as stand-alone exhibitions to 26 countries across 251 locations, including the European Parliament, NATO Summit (2023), and the Office of the President of Ukraine. Shown here for the first time, this latest icons on ammo boxes cycle carries an unequivocal and urgent plea that we must collectively work to free all Ukrainian children from Russian captivity and restore them to their homeland.

In this juxtaposition of beauty and brutality lies the exhibition’s profound power. These icons offer visitors something rare and necessary – the opportunity to witness how art, resilience, and unwavering faith can transform even the instruments of our darkest hours into testaments to the indomitable human spirit.

Andrew Horodysky

March 2026

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During their meeting on Sunday, May 18, 2025, President Volodymyr Zelensky and First Lady Olena Zelenska presented Pope Leo XIV with an icon from this Marian cycle. The ammunition box on which that work was painted was brought from the Izium area in the Kharkiv Oblast in northeast Ukraine.

Marian Icons on Ammo Boxes is patronized and supported by First Lady Olena Zelenska, with partial proceeds from each icon purchase benefiting the Wings of Victory initiative. 

This exhibition is made possible thanks to the support of the Orthodox Christian Cultural Institute and Oleh and Olena Duda.

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For further information, please contact the Institute at (212) 288-8660 or mail@ukrainianinstitute.org.

For acquisitions, please contact Andrew Horodysky at (646) 737-2458 or andrew.horodysky@gmail.com.

Image: Mother of God with Child, 2026, tempera and gold leaf on ammo box fragment, 17 x 15 3/4 inches (43 x 40 cm).

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Exhibition hours: Thursday to Sunday, 12–6 PM or by appointment.