‘Women at War’ curator to discuss exhibit on contemporary artworks by female Ukrainian artists

MOORHEAD — Giving platform to female narrators in times of war, Monika Fabijanska has assembled “Women at War,” an exhibition of contemporary female artists living and working in Ukraine.

Fabijanska is an art historian, contemporary art curator and art appraiser based in New York City. She will give a talk on the exhibition “Women at War” at 4 p.m. Monday at Minnesota State University Moorhead.

Anna Sigrídur Arnar, art historian and professor of art history at MSUM’s School of Visual Arts, has been working with Fabijanska to bring “Women at War” to venues throughout the midwest.

“Just last week was the second anniversary of the start of the war, and there seems to be a lack of political will,” Arnar said. “It’s at a real critical point. This exhibition humanizes the conflict.”

Though “Women at War” will not open in the state until spring of 2025 at the North Dakota Museum of Art in Grand Forks, Arnar was eager to bring Fabijanska to the area and into her classroom. While on campus, Fabijanska will visit with art history students at North Dakota State University to discuss curatorial and museum work.

“These are artists that use art as a form of resistance, and it’s also very empowering,” said Arnar. “This has happened throughout history. How do you, as a creative person, continue to make art as you are living through something — not just as an observer, but living in it?”

“Women at War” is an expansive exhibition and catalog, covering not only this most recent conflict in Ukraine, but goes back in time. The exhibition provides context for the current war, as represented in art across media and conveys war as central to history, yet primarily written and painted by men.

Several works in the exhibition were made following a full-scale invasion of Ukraine by Russia in 2022; others date back to the eight years of war following the annexation of Crimea and the creation of two separatist republics in 2014.

“Some of these works reference the long history of war and how women and children are often not part of the narrative – and yet central to it,” Arnar said.

The discussion will be streamed live as well as held in person at 4 p.m. Monday at Comstock Memorial Union, room 205, on the MSUM campus. The event is free and open to the public. Zoom attendees can log in at

minnstate.zoom.us/j/96458307082

.

Anastassiya Andrianova, who is Ukrainian and associate professor of English at North Dakota State University, will moderate the conversation.

When looking for venues to bring “Women and War” to the midwest, Arnar approached the North Dakota Museum of Art, “because they have an amazing track record of taking on shows that are global in nature,” she said.

Editor’s note: The exhibition and catalogue confront disturbing topics, including rape.

Anna Paige is a journalist, poet, and artist with a penchant for storytelling. She’s an editor at the Forum, working with the business and features team. Anna moved to Fargo in 2024 after spending two decades in Montana where she worked as a journalist for several statewide outlets.