From occupied village to Welsh gallery: Ukrainian artist’s work shown in Neath

Gosia Buzzanca

Paintings by a major Ukrainian artist will be on public display in Wales through March in a newly created showcase exhibiting Welsh and international art.

Anatoly Shmatok’s colourful and bold work is described as representative of naïve art genre and has been exhibited in the National Gallery in Kyiv. This month his paintings form a substantial part of a new exhibition Gwedd ar Nedd which runs for three weeks from 7th – 28th March at the Queen Street Gallery in Neath.

Naïve art is a genre of visual art created by self-taught artists lacking formal training, characterized by a charming, “childlike” simplicity, vibrant colors, and a disregard for traditional rules of perspective and proportion. It emphasises raw, emotional expression and storytelling over technical precision, often resulting in flat, detailed, and dreamlike scenes.

Although Shmatok’s work appears simple, there is a delicate skill in its portrayal of everyday objects and nature—qualities that have delighted viewers in both Ukraine and Wales. His paintings use bright and vibrant colours to present homes, people and animals mixed up in dreamlike exotic landscapes.

The Ukrainian art critic Kateryna Lebedieva has written of Shmatok’s work that the naïve art form is able to evoke a smile, to cheer and to heal. Although Shmatok, who was born in 1966, has been painting since the age of 12, it is the present devastating war waged by Russia against Ukraine makes his close attention to familiar homely objects and animals even more poignant.

Shamtok was staying with his mother in the countryside when the full-scale invasion came in 2022. Their village was occupied for a time by Russian soldiers.

“There was a lot of shooting, but we all walk under God,” he recalls.

“We lived in a house without a shelter and close to the airfield. We hoped that we would be lucky and the bomb would not hit the house.”

Outside Ukraine Shmatok has only been exhibited in Wales. The connection was made in 2019 when the Welsh artist David Greenslade was visiting Ukraine on an artist exchange programme.

Whilst in the capital Kyiv, Greenslade noticed one day a man standing in a doorway selling small postcard sized original works of art.

“I could see straight away that these were works of exceptional quality,” remembers David.

“I asked him ‘Did you paint these?’ He nodded and, using sign language, because I spoke no Ukrainian and Shmatok has no English or Welsh, I agreed to visit his studio and discovered his incredible work.

“I had discovered the world of Anatoly Shmatok.”

As a result of their meeting Greenslade published some articles about the artist which led to Shmatok’s exhibition in the National Gallery of Kyiv in 2024, and Greenslade is now featuring Shmatok in the new exhibition Gwedd ar Nedd in Neath.

The Neath exhibition features art from Romania where Greenslade has had a major exhibition at the National Museum of Romanian Literature, and the work of other artists from central and eastern Europe.

Alongside the international art are works from prominent Welsh artists including William Brown, Iwan Bala, Ivor Davies and Simon Evans.

Richard Parry, who has a small work in the Neath exhibition, is deeply moved by Anatoly Shmatok’s.

“I’ve been absolutely blown away by the Shmatok paintings in Neath. His work is so simple and moving – they speak and sings as you look at them.

“Shmatok paints in the naïve art tradition and all the pain and beauty of life, and in Ukraine’s case life lived today inside a war, rages and courses through his art.

“I’m certain people will be very affected by these paintings, and it’s brilliant that south Wales is getting a chance to see his art.

“In many ways Anatoly Shmatok is a little like the much loved British painter L. S. Lowry – outside the mainstream art world and paying close, loving attention to details in the world of the streets and rooms around them.

“I’d love to gather up Shmatok’s paintings and take them for display in every town in Wales – everyone will love and be provoked by them.”

Gwedd ar Nedd / Cast into Neath runs at the Queen Street Gallery, Neath from 10am – 4pm, Tuesdays to Sundays until March 28th.