(New Orleans, LA) FERRARA SHOWMAN GALLERY is proud to present Cher пам'ять : Dear Memory, the second gallery solo exhibition of Louisiana-based, Ukrainian artist Alexander Stolin. This exhibition features twelve, new, narrative and landscape paintings that conflate memories and motifs of the artist’s formative years in Kyiv with the beginnings of his growing family in Louisiana. Transcending time, place, and culture, Stolin’s paintings propound the universally relatable sensibilities of growth and change; home and adventure.

Concurrent with the exhibition at the gallery, two paintings from this series appear in Refreshing America: Artists of America From Other Countries, curated by Don Marshall, at the Contemporary Arts Center New Orleans – on view through August 2025. Cher пам'ять : Dear Memory will be on view through 19 July with an opening reception on 7 June from 5 – 8 PM in conjunction with the Arts District New Orleans’ monthly First Saturday Gallery Openings.

Stolin discusses the inspiration for his new work . . .

In my latest suite of paintings, I continue my exploration of the link between sense of place and memories - how memories of specific locations from childhood create attachments and influence how you perceive and interact with the world around as life goes on. These recollections help you to preserve personal identity while adapting to new realities. For myself, starting a family and becoming a parent in a new country initiated a lifetime journey and reconciliation of my own memories and experiences from growing up in very different social and cultural circumstances. This formed my understanding of the world around me, positioning my values, relationships, and sense of self.

The language of art also helped me to create a visual dialogue with my kids, sharing thoughts and ideas. I incorporate depictions of my children in the paintings and create a storyline of my childhood before digital technologies; when we played outside, directly interacted with each other, explored neighborhoods. These are reflections on another time, when we created imaginative plays and built relationships with one another.

The narrative works are punctuated by the riverscapes of New Orleans, my second home for the past 30 years. The remarkable panoramic view from Algiers Point levee to contemporary downtown juxtaposed by the historical French Quarter, Marigny and Bywater neighborhoods has always brought memories of Kyiv - the city where I was born and raised, resting on the banks of the mighty river Dnipro.

Marrying these spoken histories with the visual storytelling of my work, I portray my childhood, my children’s childhood, and the blending of time and culture with New Orleans as the backdrop. My intention is to blur these disparate elements – the separation of one’s childhood and adulthood - to create one fluid storyline and ensure the memories are not lost and will continue into the future.

ALEXANDER STOLIN, born and raised in Kyiv, Ukraine (under the former Soviet Socialist Republic), received intensive training and a Master of Fine Arts from The State Institute of Art (Kyiv) in 1988. He immigrated to San Francisco in 1992, met his future wife in Hattiesburg, Mississippi, then married and settled in New Orleans. He maintains a home and studio in Madisonville, Louisiana, and is a significant but understated figure in the New Orleans art community. As art critic D. Eric Bookhardt suggested in 2002, “Stolin is more accomplished than he is famous.” His art, often exhibited in thematic series that incorporate a variety of media, ranges from intimate portraits to large-scale murals (one measuring twelve feet by seventy-two feet). Since 2010, Stolin has developed and designed various painting projects for the television and film industry.

Stolin’s technically proficient and complexly layered art reflects a unique fusion of the academic training he received in Kyiv and his evolving response to the very different culture, lifestyle, and subject matter he has discovered in New Orleans, Madisonville, and the Gulf South. His technical skills, knowledge of art history, and the evolving range of his subject matter reflected from one series and exhibition to the next.  The artist’s oeuvre continues to present challenges for critics to classify his work, yet continues to receive strong, positive critical acclaim and client interest. This was evident in the series Stolin exhibited during his first decade in the city, beginning with Byzantium on the Bayou (1993–1994), which combined historical Byzantine art references with New Orleans and Mardi Gras subjects such as Mardi Gras Madonna and Adoration of St. Gator. In his Midnight Dessert series (1995–1997), he created works such as Tea in Manhattan and Rembrandt and Nathan, a large painting that Bookhardt described as “a vision of Rembrandt and various Dutch masters promenading down the sidewalk past Nathan’s Deli in New York.” Following that, he completed The Water Series (1998–1999), featuring reflective and heavily worked surfaces in paintings such as Reflections #2 and Study of Fish and Swimmers.

His works appears in the collection of the 21c Museums, Bill Goldring of the Sazerac Company, and Ogden Museum of Southern Art in New Orleans, as well as, numerous corporate and private collections.

For more information, press or sales inquiries please contact Gallery Director Matthew Weldon Showman at 504.343.6827 or matthew@ferrarashowman.com. Please join the conversation with FSG on Instagram (@FerraraShowmanGallery) via the hashtags: #AlexanderStolin #FerraraShowmanGallery, and #ArtsDistrictNewOrleans.