The Show Must Go On
Olga Szkabarnicki
July 4 - July 23
Opening Reception: Friday July 4, 5-7pm

Olga Szkabarnicki:
In early February 2014, I attended the National Ballet of Ukraine’s masterful performance of La Bayadère in Montreal. At that time, the Revolution of Dignity, or Euromaidan, was playing out in Kyiv’s Independence Square, near the National Opera where these young artists were based. The uprising was fuelled by well-educated young people who wanted change. At its peak, 400,000 - 800,000 protesters filled the Square, broadly demanding basic human rights, closer ties to Europe and an end to government corruption and Russian influence. Almost 100 protesters and 13 police died before disgraced politicians fled and the police withdrew on February 21.

As they smiled and waved during their curtain call, the dancers must have been thinking of their compatriots, family members, friends and teachers taking part in the uprising in Kyiv. But surely they also were thinking something else: the show must go on. It is what we do. It is who we are.

This show is my testament to the resilience of the human spirit through art. It features monumental figurative paintings arising from meditations on the Euromaidan and current events, including the tragedy of Mariupol, infused with my personal experience with recurrent breast cancer in 2024. Smaller portraits and other expressive figurative pieces, including paintings based on life drawing sessions with the Salt Spring Island Painters Guild, are companions to the more edgy work in the show.

The making and beholding of art can be an act of hope, courage, or resistance. It is my sincere desire that you will feel the vitality of the pieces and reflect on human resilience expressed through art - both in the act of making, and in the beholding.

The show must go on.