Window exhibition

Like A Dove is an exhibition that explores Orthodox and pagan tradition in the Ukrainian diasporic context. It reflects on the trauma enacted against queer people in religious and immigrant contexts by exploring divine hiddenness and magic symbols in theology. Objects of reverence made from ballpoint pen on canva, bricks and recycled materials highlight the magic of domestic and Slavic folkloric ritual as a mechanism of resistance, healing, and play.

“Wounds have been made in his limbs …  in which, like a dove, you may hide while you kiss them one by one. Your lips stained with his blood, will become like a scarlet ribbon and your word sweet.” 
–Masha Granich

About the artist

Masha Granich’s work evolves through intuitive and lifelong visual exercises in world-building. They draw from personal reference images and memories to create scenes that exist in an imaginary world where all their works can exist simultaneously. This process seeks to create a space where tradition and folklore, auto-fiction, ancestral wisdom, and ordinary magic can be interwoven. To do so, they use a visual language made up of domestic and familiar landscapes, symbols, and repetition to create scenes where heritage, myth-making, and prayer can be reflected onto. 

Their work aims to evoke cultural nostalgia, curiosity and healing for those who share parts of their queer or cultural identity, especially in wartime contexts. They often use their family and community as icons, collaborations, and figure references, drawing on their memories to create visual narratives. Granich’s current research explores the origins of tradition, superstition, and folklore. They use these knowledge forms to imagine and build alternate cultural mythologies that allow for play, humour, and the reconciliation of traditionally conflicting parts of their identity. This research has led them to view their practice of collecting as a cultural experience shaped by ancestral traditions and identity. 

Biography

Masha Granich (they/them) is a queer and trans Ukrainian immigrant and multidisciplinary artist, living and working in Tiohtià:ke/Mooniyang, otherwise known as Montreal. They work primarily in blue ballpoint pen, illustration, stained glass, metalwork, and found object installation. Their practice is an experiment in visual autofiction and world-building; drawing influence from immigrant and refugee experiences, oral tradition and a growing personal symbology grounded in ancestral and cultural legacies. Their practice is heavily influenced by a mix of Ukrainian and Slavic practices, which is often a chaotic coexistence of folklore, pagan and Orthodox ritual, and resistance.

They studied Publications and Printmaking at OCAD University in Toronto as a way to explore alternate personal narratives through storytelling and experimental bookmaking. They are now the owner of Rest Stop, a multidisciplinary community space and studio located in Montreal’s Plateau neighbourhood. Their work has been shown in group shows at Fais-moi l’art (2024, Katherine Mulherin Contemporary (2018), Super Wonder Gallery (2019), and OCADU (2019-2020). They most recently exhibited a body of work as part of ARTCH Montreal’s cohort in October, La Centrale Powerhouse in the summer, and are working on workshops with Atelier Clark and an exhibition with 1215 Gallery.