Coming in Autumn 2025

Boris Mikhailov: Ukrainian Diary

Fri 10 Oct 2025 - Sun 22 Feb 2026

A major retrospective of work by influential Ukrainian artist Boris Mikhailov (b. 1938, Kharkiv, Ukraine). 

Double exposed image of a hand with red-painted nails, holding a crust of bread which overlays a hill in which a group of silhouetted people are walking down.

Coming in Autumn 2025

Boris Mikhailov: Ukrainian Diary

Fri 10 Oct 2025 - Sun 22 Feb 2026

A major retrospective of work by influential Ukrainian artist Boris Mikhailov (b. 1938, Kharkiv, Ukraine). 

Ukrainian Diary is the first major UK retrospective of work by Boris Mikhailov, one of the most influential contemporary artists from Eastern Europe. Mikhailov has explored social and political subjects for more than fifty years through his experimental photographic work. 

A colour image of two elderly people stood in a dirt road near a shop front in Ukraine.

Boris Mikhailov, From the series "Case History", 1997-98. © Boris Mikhailov, VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn, Courtesy Boris and Vita Mikhailov

Described as an outsider, a trickster and ‘a kind of proto-punk', Mikhailov combines humour, mischief and tragedy in his pioneering practice, ranging from documentary photography and conceptual work, to painting and performance. Since the 1960s, he has been creating a powerful record of the tumultuous changes in Ukraine that accompanied the collapse of the Soviet Union. Ukrainian Diary brings together work from over twenty of his most important series, up to his more recent projects. 

In partnership with Maison Européenne de la Photographie (MEP), Paris.
Curators: Laurie Hurwitz and Shoair Mavlian in dialogue with Boris and Vita Mikhailov