HISTORY

Building
Gallery is placed in the upper floor of the house, built by unknown architect in 1857 in Andriyivsky Uzviz - one of the most famous and beloved streets of Kiev guests and inhabitants. The street is a part of historical reserve "Ancient Kiev" and has a fame of the place where vernissages, festivals, parties and celebrations are traditionally held.
In 1995 Father Varlaam, the senior priest of Orthodox Church of Exaltation of the Cross, sanctified the house.

Family

Founders of the gallery - family of the artists: Eugene Karas - son, director of the gallery, Valery Karas - father, artist of monument, Marietta Levkhanyan - mother, artist of ceramics.
Father of Marietta Levkhanyan, Eugene Arshakovitch Levkhanyan, till Great Patriotic War (World War Two) lived in Yerevan, Armenia, working in Yerevan Opera and Ballet Theatre as an artist, and in "Armeniafilm" Studio as director artist.
In war time Eugene Levkhanyan was hardly wounded and found himself in Lvov, Ukraine. He brought here his family for living. In Lvov he was one of the founders of Lvov branch of the Artists' Union.
Daughter of Eugene, Marietta, has married also an artist Valery Karas. In 60-ies, after graduating Lvov State Institute of Applied Art, family of Karas moved to Kiev. First they had the atelier in Lyuteranskaya Street.
In 1986 honoured artists Valery Karas and Marietta Levkhanyan have got art atelier in Andriyivsky Uzviz according to decree of Ministers' Council of Ukraine. Since this moment the building has become (as many years ago) wished for contacts of culture elite, wished as aesthetic space of interesting meetings.

Gallery

1995 - beginning of the exhibition activity of the creative studio "Art-Synthesis", renamed into "Atelier Karas" gallery in 1996.

1995 - first public action: puppet exhibition by Natalya Rudyuk, the artist of theatre (with the assistance of Mikhailo Iliyenko, producer, and actors from Iv.Franko Theatre and Theatre of Young Spectator (TYUZ).

1995 - gallery becomes a founder and a member in the Board of Association of Art Galleries of Ukraine.

1996 - founding the consortium of: International Charity Fund "Gattamelata", "Atelier Karas" Gallery, creative-production studio.

1997 - the series of big personal exhibitions, leaded by the policy of unification representatives of leading art tendencies and groups in Ukraine.

1998 - exhibition plan "Retrospection" included 18 exhibitions, each presenting three artists (together 51 personal exhibitions) with common formal and ideological positions, who demonstrated the whole panorama of art ideas from all over the Ukraine.

1999 - working over the scaled art project (exhibitions, album, CD) "XX Artists of Ukraine (End of the Century)", presenting the phenomenon of Ukrainian visual art at the end of XX century. The Album will be an edition that presents culture of Ukraine for official and business quarters in Ukraine and abroad.