Anton Shebetko

27. 7. 2026

Anton Shebetko, Dear Sons and Daughters of Ukraine, 2025, photo Ela Bialkowska
Anton Shebetko, Dear Sons and Daughters of Ukraine, 2025, photo Ela Bialkowska

Dear Sons and Daughters of Ukraine

Project Dear Sons and Daughters of Ukraine examines how images of national heroes and heroines are constructed and how biographical facts are selected and manipulated to support dominant historical narratives. It also reconsiders memorialisation from a queer perspective, proposing new meanings for inherited symbols. 

The project consists of two series. The silkscreen series presents portraits of scientists, artists, and political figures tied to Ukraine through origin or cultural contribution. While central to national mythology, the queer dimensions of their biographies are often erased. Printed white on white, the portraits render these aspects barely visible, reflecting their historical suppression and the complexity of identity.

This tension between presence and absence mirrors a broader pattern: Ukrainian culture has often been marginalised or reframed through imperial perspectives, while its figures have been appropriated by others.

The second series, Tryouts, features large-format photographs of homoerotic Soviet-era monuments, now destroyed or inaccessible. Partially covered with OSB panels inspired by Malevich, the works reveal queer subtexts while obscuring propaganda, offering alternative readings of the past.

IMAGES CAPTIONS

1 | Anton Shebetko, Dear Sons and Daughters of Ukraine, 2025
3 | Anton Shebetko, Tryouts (Monument to the soldiers of Dnipro flotilla), Dear Sons and
Daughters of Ukraine, 2025
4 | Anton Shebetko, Tryouts (Memorial to Death Match footballers), Dear Sons and Daughters of Ukraine, 2025
5 | Tryouts (Statue of two workers [Peoples’ Friendship Arch]), Dear Sons and Daughters of Ukraine, 2025
Installation shot from the exhibition of shortlisted artists for Pinchuk Art Prize, PinchukArtCentre, Kyiv, Ukraine
6–7 | Installation shot from Shame of Shuffled Card, Kunstfort bit Vijfhuizen, Vijfhuizen, Netherlands

Anton Shebetko

Anton Shebetko is a Ukrainian artist, photographer, and curator from Kyiv, based in Amsterdam. His work explores queer histories in Ukraine, focusing on memory, identity, and the role of archives and photography in making these stories visible. He has exhibited internationally and recently curated, together with Maria Vtorushyna, a group show, A Heart That Beats: Focus on Queer Ukrainian Art, at Schwules Museum in Berlin.