Lihachova Zinaida

Her work as an artist and designer Zinaida Likhacheva perceives not only as a self-realization, but also as part of cultural communication. After all, Ukraine is largely for Europe, and Terra Incognito still remains. And the collections and artistic works of Zinaida raise the deepest layers of Ukrainian culture, touch upon its subtle dimensions, dressing them in a form that is accessible to the understanding of the modern world. That is why Zinaida’s collections, as well as her paintings, are provoked in the European creative environment.

Meanwhile, Zinaida Likhacheva’s understanding of creativity is led by the understanding of two phenomena: ethno-modern and art-fashion. Ethno-modern is a style that arose from the immersion of Zinaida in folk culture, communication with ethnographers, the study of symbols in folk embroidery, the study of the most ancient sacral symbols, and attempts to put all this madness of color and vitality into a modern form. Zinaida is sure that a resident of a metropolis can draw energy from ancient sacral sources, without detaching from the context of the 21st century. Ethno-modern first appeared in Zinaida’s debut collection “Sunlight” (Autumn-Winter 2010-2011), which combined ethnic motifs, sacred geometry, modern cut, natural materials and hand-embroidery. “Light of the Sun” Zinaida presented at Oxford Fashion Week (Great Britain). Despite the fact that it was her debut as a designer, the collection received hot reviews from professionals and the press. It was called the most feminine and modern. A few weeks later, Zinaida made her debut on the Ukrainian podium, in the western Ukrainian city of Lviv, at the second most important Fashion Week in the country – Lviv Fashion Week.

Convinced that the ethno-theme, the perfect embodiment in modern times, is of interest to the world and Ukrainian, Zinaida continues to deepen into traditional culture. But her enthusiasm is evident not only in the design of clothes, but also in painting, because Zinaida is primarily a professional artist. She begins to experiment with sacral symbols on the canvas, skips the ancient signs of power through her creative perception. So there is a small series of works, which formed the basis of the second collection “VidLunnia” (spring-summer 2011) and the already mentioned sign for Zinaida Likhacheva phenomenon – art-fashion. Transformed by creative imagination, the artist decides to use the symbols in the design of clothing: they appear in the form of prints, turning dresses into living pictures. No falsehood. Everything breathes, everything is inspired, everything is alive. Zinaida presented the collection “VidLunnia” (spring-summer 2011) on four Fashion Week: the main fashion event of the country – Ukrainian Fashion Week, Russian Fashion Week (the most large-scale and influential event in the world of Russian fashion, which is ranked among the ten largest world Fashion Week) ; Georgian Fashion Week, (a very young but very ambitious fashion event), as well as Lviv Fashion Week, where the legendary Kenzo Takada congratulated Zinaida on the success of the second collection.

After the creation of two collections, ethno-modern went out of the neighborhood of the design and spread in the artistic work of Zinaida. It was the ethno-modern concept that marked the foundation for creating the installation “Our Women”, built in the spirit of a combination of sacred and modern, which was presented at the Art-Kyiv Contemporary-2010, the largest contemporary art fair in Ukraine in the Artistic Arsenal. By the way, in the summer of 2010 in the gallery “Mystetskyi Arsenal” the first personal exhibition of Zinaida Likhacheva’s painting “C” was opened.

In Zinaida Likhacheva’s plans – the further development of the art-fashion in her collections, as well as the embodiment of the concept of “ethno-modern” in various styles and artistic directions.