Vlada Ralko
Vlada Ralko (b. 1969) is a Ukrainian artist. She works in painting, graphics, installation, and creates art books. She is a member of the National Union of Artists of Ukraine, a laureate of the All-Ukrainian Painting Triennale Award and the Women in Arts Award, and a CCN Graz grant holder. Ralko studied at the National Academy of Fine Arts and Architecture in Kyiv, Faculty of Painting.
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In 2002, she first took part in the notable project Chinese Erotic Diary, organized at Marat Gelman’s galleries in Kyiv and Moscow. The project featured ballpoint pen, watercolor, and gouache drawings on small sheets, capturing the artist’s impressions of China, where her husband, artist Volodymyr Budnikov, was working at the time.
Vlada Ralko’s works frequently engage with questions of identity in social and political contexts, delving into existential depths of pain, intimacy, and suffering. Her painting is filled with emotion, intensity, and contrast. Her manner of expression is rooted in European traditions, while her palette is saturated, emotional, and uncompromising.
Ralko holds solo exhibitions and participates in group shows: Kaleidoscope of (Hi)stories. Ukrainian Art 1912–2023 at the Albertinum in Dresden (Germany); Vlada Ralko & Volodymyr Budnikov: Questioning the Visible at Galeria Arsenal in Białystok (Poland); Women at War at Fridman Gallery in collaboration with Voloshyn Gallery in New York (USA); Ukraine: Short Stories. Contemporary Artists from Ukraine at MAXXI — National Museum of 21st Century Arts in Rome (Italy); and The Phantom of Liberty. Version at Galeria Arsenal in Białystok (Poland).
Vlada Ralko lives and works in Kyiv.