Volodymyr Say is a Ukrainian artist mostly working with sculpture and photography. He was born in 1977 in Kyiv. In 1997 he graduated from the Department of Painting of the Kyiv Art and Industry College. In 2005 he graduated from the Department of Graphics of the National Academy of Visual Arts and Architecture. He presented his works in individual and group projects at Mystetskyi Arsenal, Bottega Gallery, Shcherbenko Art Center, Chocolate House, Mironova Gallery, Ya Gallery Art Center and others. He is a participant of the МУХі / Competition for Young Ukrainian Artists (#МУХі 2011). He lives and works in Kyiv.

Volodymyr Sai is consistent in the artistic study of senility image, analysis of the aesthetic impression of skin texture, look, corporeality. Conceptual integrity contrasts with variability of materials, techniques and media used by the artist: graphics, video, sculpture made from plastic bags, chicken skin, oil paint and, of course, ceramics.

The new series by Sai is expressive, created without a model, like sketches. While working on it, the artist reproduced art academy student practices – when one can work on sketches, not striving for the final version, but enjoying the process itself, making “a free, unobtrusive action similar to breathing”. In his 2017 project, the artist researches the possibilities of sketching in sculpture: its lightness, non-binding, incompleteness, which suggest continuation…

The fundamental non-ideality of the statuette by Volodymyr Sai gives an impression of lively execution. Meanwhile, the streamlined enamel gift them with the effect of completeness. Colors – yellow and white – add vividness. “Especially yellow,” – adds the artist, “summer-like, sunny, full-blooded”. The image of a naked burly woman repeated in “sketches” is life-affirming and optimistic – contrary to the previous series of the author. Dynamic texture, “depersonalized figurative, opposite to portrait” of works reflect the development of author’s style. Figurines are like unobtrusive sketches – after seeing them, one can easily teleport to one of familiar Ukrainian beaches.