Artist plans Belturbet exhibition in aid of Ukraine

A Ukrainian artist living in Belturbet will host an exhibition of her work, with all proceeds from sales going to support the humanitarian effort in her home country.

In particular, Viktoria Frolova wants to help an orphanage that takes care of disabled children located in her home city Odessa, 447 kilometres south of the capital Kyiv, and one of the worst hit by Russia’s invasion to date.

She describes the current situation in Ukraine as “frightening” when speaking to The Anglo-Celt.

By last weekend, Russia’s military encroachment had all but surrounded the southern port city on three fronts.

Thankfully, reports Viktoria, the children of the orphanage escaped with their carers via a humanitarian corridor, and are now in Poland. But the humanitarian situation remains dire.

“I used to be a member of the board in this orphanage for many years, as well as in another organisation for the rehabilitation of drug addicted people. I know the local situation out there,” explains Viktoria, who paints at her home studio.

From there, she has already has amassed a catalogue of more than 40 works, some of which will be on display at her upcoming exhibition at the Belturbet Railway Station this coming weekend, Friday (March 18) from 4-7pm, and Saturday (March 19) from 4-8pm.

As part of her upcoming exhibition, Viktoria will be selling a selection of five beautiful prints of her work, at €15 each.

Viktoria has lived in Belturbet for the past two years, after moving to the Erneside town to be with her husband Olegs, a native of Latvia. Viktoria is still mastering English, and sometimes relies on Olegs to get her point across as she would wish.

Together the couple have already assisted in helping one of Viktoria’s friends to escape Ukraine and travel from Poland to Ireland. “We are even trying to write some things on the internet to try and highlight the situation back in Ukraine,” says Olegs. “What is happening is very bad, a lot of people are suffering. Viktoria was a member of the board of an orphanage back in Odessa and she wants to try to support them somehow. They’ve had to move out of Odessa and are now in Poland some place. But now they’re safe. That wasn’t the case two days or more ago.”

Though relatively new to the Cavan art scene, locals might be surprised to learn that they are already aware of one of her most outlandish, and lavishly large, installations to date.

Cupid mystery solved

The big hearted Viktoria, so enamoured by the town that has welcomed her, and happy to be back by the side of husband Olegs, can now be unmasked as the mystery cupid who, under the cover of darkness, secretly decorated Belturbet with little red hearts before Valentine’s Day 2021.

On Valentines’ morning locals awoke with delight to find trees, bushes, gates and fences festooned with felt material hearts, each neatly tied or hung, with ribbons.

The identity of those behind the Valentine’s Day gesture remained a mystery until now, their actions captured on CCTV footage from several local businesses the only clue left behind.

Viktoria repeated the task once again on a much smaller scale for Valentine’s 2022 such was the response.

She wears her art on her sleeve, quite literally, sporting a jumper beautifully painted with acrylic with the image of the Eastern Orthodox Christian Saint, the archangel St Michael, she says: “I love art. The love hearts were a thanks to the town I now call home, how happy I was to be here, with my husband, to celebrate our love, but also to change the mood even for one day during the pandemic, to see people smile.”

Olegs laughs: “If you could have seen the amount of material, the hours she spent, cutting, cutting, cutting, all these little hearts. But it was worth it, to see people the next day, to see their reactions, to see their joy. It made Viktoria really happy.”