Kadan’s works are held in the collections of the Pinakothek der Moderne in Munich, the Museum of Contemporary Art M HKA in Antwerp, the Museum of Modern Art MUMOK in Vienna, the Kontakt Collection in Vienna, the Art Collection Telekom in Bonn, the Military History Museum in Dresden, the National Art Museum of Ukraine in Kyiv, and Galeria Arsenal in Białystok. He has participated in the 56th Venice Biennale and the 14th Istanbul Biennale, as well as exhibitions at Kunsthaus Zürich, Palazzo Reale di Milano, l’Institut d’art contemporain in Lyon, the DAAD Galerie in Berlin, UMOCA – Utah Museum of Contemporary Art in Salt Lake City, and Zamek Ujazdowski in Warsaw.
The artist works in painting and sculpture, as well as in installation, graphics, and mural painting. He uses abstraction and modeling as core artistic strategies. He collaborates on interdisciplinary projects with architects, human rights advocates, and sociologists. Through his works, Kadan responds to social and political debates in Ukraine.
In the fall of 2022, Kadan presented charcoal works at Art Basel Miami. These paintings feature gray skies and black plowed fields overlaid with Russian words Deti (Children) and Lyudi (People) — echoing inscriptions on fences and walls in occupied towns and villages of Ukraine. He also exhibited works from the series Repeated Speech, in which he endlessly rewrites anti-war slogans from protests against the war in Ukraine on a single sheet of paper: “...there is so much powerlessness in each slogan, yet the act of repetition—and repetition by many voices—turns even words into a weapon,” — Kadan explains.
Mykyta Kadan lives and works in Kyiv.