Boris Mikhailov

The Ukrainian Museum New York is proud to present Boris Mikhailov, the first major museum exhibition of the celebrated Ukrainian photographer in New York City. Opening on September 14, 2025, and running until January 18, 2026, the exhibition offers a profound journey through Mikhailov’s groundbreaking photographic practice, which captures the complexities of life in post-Soviet Ukraine. The exhibition will focus on a selection of works from two seminal series that represent both the chrysalis of Mikhailov’s oeuvre; Yesterday's Sandwich, as well the culmination of his continued pursuit for an expressive visual language over many decades in Parliament. Together, these works trace an arc from private to public, from fragile individual existence to the larger machinations of political life, illuminating the complexities of Ukraine’s past and its present place on the global stage. This exhibition of opposites aims to illuminate Mikhailov's evolution as an artist and the thematic continuity evident in his oeuvre.

Boris Mikhailov emerged as a revolutionary figure in the realm of photography, most notably with his seminal series, Yesterday's Sandwich, created in the late 1960s and early 1970s. This series, distinguished by its layering of negatives from disparate images, reflects Mikhailov's ability to weave complex narratives through visual juxtaposition. Each composition serves as a dialogue between past and present, encapsulating the stark realities of Soviet life and the ephemeral nature of memory. With Yesterday’s Sandwich, Mikhailov summarised Soviet life in Kharkiv, Ukraine, as surreal and weirdly unusual.

Yesterday's Sandwich was produced by Mikhailov as an audacious response to the constrictions of an oppressive Soviet regime. With each frame, Mikhailov wove together the threads of beauty and grotesque, employing manual manipulation to overlap the narratives of soldiers, citizens, and everyday life. His photographs, a visual cacophony, presented a duality: the pedestrian lifelessness juxtaposed with moments of serene grace. They evoked the silent whispers of joy amidst despair, challenging the viewer's perception of Soviet identity.

Captured through an analogue lens, the images defied the constraints of their era, each frame a testament to resilience and creativity. The laughter of children danced amid the ashes of war, the radiant colors of a fading sunset pierced the fog of monotony. Mikhailov's work, unseen, became a silent revolution, a profound reminder that beauty, even in emptiness, could blossom in the heart of darkness.

Decades later, Mikhailov created the Parliament series, which he completed in 2017, embodying a mature lens focused on societal change and political discourse. Adopting the aesthetics of glitch art and decomposed images, which serve as visual metaphors for cyberbalkanization and the splintering of media communities, the artist continued his search for expressive visual techniques to supplement his signature superimpositions, aniline hand-colouring, and handwriting on the margins of photographs.

Curated by Peter Doroshenko, Director of The Ukrainian Museum, the exhibition underscores Mikhailov’s singular role in shaping Ukrainian visual culture. Doroshenko notes:

“Boris Mikhailov is Ukraine’s most celebrated living artist. Combining an early series of works, Yesterday’s Sandwich, and his last in-depth body of photographs, Parliament, creates an interesting polar overview of both Ukrainian history and current global political posturing. Mikhailov exposes what we already know about Ukraine’s past and the influences on it today.”