Sasha Kurmaz

Sasha Kurmaz (b. 1986) is a Ukrainian artist and activist working with photography, video, installation, sculpture, and sound. Kurmaz began his career as a graffiti artist, and has continued exploring the concept of public space across various media. Since the Russian invasion of Crimea in 2014, Kurmaz has built an expansive body of work examining the psychology of human violence. In the aftermath of the full-scale invasion in 2022, Kurmaz remained in his native country, documenting the war and producing work which considers its effects.

Thousand Yard Stare includes Kurmaz’s Russian Literature and Genocide (2022), a haunting representation of the artist’s interdisciplinary practice. A combination of sculpture and photography, the work features an image by documentary photographer Mykhaylo Palinchak showing the bodies of two civilian corpses lying on the street in Bucha, Ukraine, on April 3, 2022. The framed photograph sits on top of a collection of found Russian books which exalt and promote Russian Imperialism, per Kurmaz - the image of the corpses is held up by centuries of imperial colonial values in the form of literature, just as the origins of the current invasion can be traced back hundreds of years. The exhibition also features a small work from Kurmaz’s series Living With The Fear of Being Harmed by Other Humans, which reflects on the gruesome and inexplicable nature of violence.

Sasha Kurmaz’s work has been exhibited throughout Europe, including recently in “The New Abnormal” (2022) at Deichtorhallen Hamburg. Works by the artist are held in various prestigious private and public collections, including at the Pinchuk Art Centre in Kyiv.