A Different View of War Trauma

Now on display at Five Points Gallery in Torrington, Conn., “Ukraine Flower Series: The Power of Defiance” is a collection of violent black and white florals by painter Sandra Filippucci. At once blooming to life and a reflection of the jarring rush of death from wartime explosions, the mixed media paintings go against much of the artistic iconography that has sprung out of this East European conflict. In an online artist’s talk held on the one-year anniversary of war in Ukraine, Filippucci, a resident of Cornwall, Conn., shared that she purposefully avoided literal images of the country in peril.

“Most of the work is austere and monochromatic. I did not want to bring in Ukrainian colors. I did not want to paint sunflowers. I thought there has to be a way to express the generational damage of war without using the universal go-to’s,” Filippucci said. “Otherwise it becomes an illustration. I was a New York illustrator, and I wanted to overcome the impulse to be narrative in this series.”

“Ukraine Flower Series” is on display in the West Gallery of Five Points Gallery through March 11. For more go to www.fivepointsarts.org