The Ukrainian Diaspora: Women Artists 1908–2015
October 18, 2015 – February 14, 2016
The Ukrainian Museum
222 East 6th Street (between Second and Third Avenues) New York, NY 10003
T: 212-228-0110
in[email protected] www.ukrainianmuseum.org
Paper Works
Graphics
Crafts
Sophia Lada's more recent work is a series of visual commentaries exploring images of female form, rooted in goddesses of Old Europe, and interwoven with the demands for conformity imposed by our image-conscious culture. Most of them are painted in gouache on paper or acrylic on canvas. The INTERPRETATION series is made with paper, linen thread and twine.
Paper Works
In the early paintings, Sophia Lada manipulated her private reflections into the folklore of the ancient spiritual culture of Ukraine, tempering mythological forest creatures into deep symbolism. These woodland spirits are painted in egg tempra, oil, acrylic and gouache.
Quilt of Possibilities is a collaborative project initiated by the Greenbelt Foundation and the Ontario Crafts Council, traveling throughout Ontario in 2010. A full colour catalog has been created, with each artist's contributing square receiving a one page close-up and artist's statement. View Greenbelt site and Tara Bursey site.
FOUND THREADS exhibit
September 5 - 16, 2007
*new* gallery
906 Queen Street West, Toronto 416.588.1200
A six-foot ritual cloth, hand-embroidered by visual artist LADA in 2005-2006 together with her mother Marusia, who was then 96, is the centerpiece of FOUND THREADS. It was designed from cut linen pieces and threads found in her mother’s sewing room.
Inspired by her mother’s hand-embroidered linens, LADA gives them new life. Within their existing geometric borders, she hand stitches multiple images with found threads. For LADA, embroidery is a new medium through which she explores the relationship between order, spontaneity, thread and ritual. See selections from exhibit here.
Sophia Lada was a Toronto based visual artist. Her work is inspired by the desire for self-knowledge and spiritual connection through the investigation of her ancestral roots.
Since graduating from the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts in 1965, Lada participated in nine solo and numerous curated group exhibitions in USA and Canada. Her work was included in nationally touring exhibitions, ART AND ETHNICITY from the Canadian Museum of Civilization and the QUILT PROJECT organized by the Women's Art Resource Centre, Toronto.
The 1992 body of work REFLECTIONS was created as a traveling exhibit, and was shown at Omega Centre Gallery and St. Vladimir Institute Gallery in Toronto, Multicultural Gallery at Central Michigan University, and the Ukrainian Institute of Modern Art in Chicago. This work is an ongoing series of visual commentaries exploring images of the female form, rooted in the goddesses of Old Europe and interwoven with the demands for conformity imposed by our image-conscious culture.
Since 1964, Lada has held several art related positions in USA and Canada. Her work is represented internationally in both private and public collections.
AN ESSAY ON THE RECENT WORK OF LADA
by Linda Abrahams and Penelope Stewart
"Mythical imagery of the prehistoric era tells us much about humanity, its concepts of the structure of the cosmos, of the beginning of the world...lt cannot be forgotten that through myth, images and symbols, man [woman] comprehended and manifested his [her] being"
-- Marija Gimbutas
Recent archaeological examination of pre-Minoan culture establishes a new concept of the beginning of European civilization. No longer is it suggested that a single small legendary island, claimed by the sea some 9000 years ago, gave rise to the civilization of Crete and the Cyclades, but rather a considerable part of Europe surrounded by the Eastern Mediterranean, Aegean and Adriatic Seas. This pre-Indo-European culture referred to as "Old Europe", was matrifocal and worshipped the Goddess as "Source" and "Giver of All."
Lada, an artist of Ukrainian descent, explores some of these spiritual manifestations of Old Europe, including cultural representations that do not consciously imitate natural forms, but rather become the language of myth, symbols of abstract concepts of the supernatural, and notions of cyclical change, death and regeneration. Drawing upon imagery of Western Ukraine dating back to the early fourth millennium she reclaims the "Goddess Creatrix" of late Cucuteni (Trypilian) figurines. Throughout the series, CONFORMITY: FOUR STUDIES, SOLITUDE and LUNAR VISIONS, Lada juxtaposes those matrifocal values that honour the passage of time with her personal experience of "ageism" as a prejudice within present day patriarchy. Her investigation posits an alternative perspective to current social constructs. In doing so, value systems are challenged; relationships between the personal and the environment are demonstrated; and self image is understood as inseparable from world views.
Lada has rejected patriarchal restrictions and claims personal values intrinsically bound to spiritual identification. Like the current movement by aboriginal peoples towards reclaiming ancient identities and values, Lada's series traces her own ancestral roots to create a "personal" identification with matrifocal goddess prehistory.
Lada's female figures have an uncanny Orwellian feel and are foregrounded throughout this series. Often doubled, these figures reinforce not only their stylized form and manufactured conformity, but also they become an insidious signifier of subjugation and control. With their backs to one another and their arms tightly folded, their relationship is revealed to their counterpart and to the viewer. This coldness is further enhanced by a penetrating gaze which looks through and beyond the viewer. Though faces may often be obscured or fragmented, they are charged with a militance. This combative quality appears also in the clothing worn; helmets of steel screwed to their heads accompanied by bracelets that bind and arm bands bolted to their forearms. These adornments become misnomers as they articulate the entrapment suffered by these figures. Identity and power seem lost; a manufactured encasement is prescribed. A new goddess has been created to serve within the monotheism of patriarchal values.
Juxtaposed to these female forms are images of goddess figures dating back to Old Europe. The reference to and the adaptations of sculptures of this tradition creates a visual counterpoint. This poignantly sets up the drama between matrifocal prehistory and the patrifocal contemporary entrapment of women. In many of Lada's depictions of the goddess she appears ravaged not only by time, but also by her obfuscation. The monochromatic graphite drawings of CONFORMITY: FOUR STUDIES utilizes one sole representation of the goddess which is either fragmented or charged with a penetrating gaze similar to her contemporary counterparts. However, this gaze projects a painful plea not found in the unconscious stare of the mannequin-like figures. Lada's use of this sole representation of the goddess highlights the similarities of the plight of the ancient and modern icons.
Throughout the progression of her subsequent series, SOLITUDE, and LUNAR VISIONS, Lada begins" to empower the images of the ancient goddess by representing her diversity. Large, luscious female forms are depicted, articulating the power and fecundity of the deities. However, tension is maintained between the ancient goddesses and their modern prototypes through the use of a consistent backdrop which consists of numerous repetitive elements. These elements include a metallic like standard rectangle articulated by corner screws, intersected by various depictions of a sphere. This mandala symbol represents a search for completeness and self unity and becomes a container framing the focal point of each image, illustrating the relationship of its contents. Depictions of the moon and the earth within several of the spheres, refine the connections between the source of ancient female power and healing and Lada's own personal reflection upon and desire for self-knowledge through the investigation of her ancestral roots.
LUNAR VISIONS, through the medium of paint, incorporates another unifying element, while expanding upon Lada's visual vocabulary. Each of the twelve gouache paintings is treated with a similar watery blue wash inspired by the light of the Canadian prairie night sky. This all encompassing blue once again connects ideas of female power and healing with natural phenomena: the sky and the sea. The indigo tone has a solemnness, while assuming a meditative effect that inspires examination of each collection of images and symbols within the narrative.
CONFORMITY: FOUR STUDIES, SOLITUDE and LUNAR VISIONS are more than just an artist's desire to identify her disenfranchisement with contemporary culture and address her loss and longing for spiritual connection through the use of images of ancient artifacts. Rather this body of work is an indictment of the obfuscation of women, particularly the Crone, the wise one. Lada's images identify the cultural fixation with youth and the delegation of aging. Fecundity is understood only as it relates to the physical, and the power and wisdom of the old is sublimated and made invisible. This is the theme that has been explored within this series. Lada identifies through her female forms this dilemma and attempts to find within these figures the power which lies hidden. Through her study of the myths and stories that framed her childhood, coupled with her experience of life, she has created an ongoing narrative which as it unfolds demonstrates the losses for all women within a patriarchal construct and establishes a "source" where feminine power can be retrieved. Lada's investigation humanizes our history, a history profoundly remote, and inspires remembering and imagining. . . .
1 Marija Gimbutas, The Goddesses and Gods of Old Europe, University of California Press, 1982, p.13.
Eisler, Riane. The Chalice and the Blade. San Francisco: Harper & Row Publishers, 1987.
Gimbutas, Marija. The Goddesses and Gods of Old Europe. University of California Press, 1982.
Jung, Carl G. Man and His Symbols. Garden City, New York: Double Day & Company Inc., 1964.
Lippard, Lucy. Overlay. New York: Pantheon Books, 1983
Linda Abrahams is the Editor of Matriart, A Canadian Feminist Journal published by the Women's Art Resource Centre, Toronto, Ontario.
Penelope Stewart is a practicing artist and the Documentation Facility Coordinator at the Women 's Art Resource Centre, Toronto, Ontario.
FUNDING FOR THIS PROJECT WAS PROVIDED BY THE HERITAGE CULTURES PROGRAM OF MULTICULTURALISM AND CITIZENSHIP CANADA .
By Olena Wawryshyn
The embroidered rushnyk, or ritual cloth, has played a central role in Ukrainian culture since pre-Christian days. It is present in everyday life as a decorative object and, as an important symbolic talisman, at various events that mark the stages of an individual’s lifecycle– from birth, to marriage, and at death.
Though beautiful embroidered rushnyks are found in many Ukrainian homes, the one that hangs in the apartment of Toronto artist Sophia Lada is unique in its size, scope and symbolism. A commemorative tribute to Lada’s mother, Marusia Lada-Uhorczak, the rushnyk contains embroidered symbols that reflect significant elements of her mother’s life as well as the creative impulses of Lada.
Spanning about six feet in length, the rushnyk also has deep personal meaning for Lada because she and her mother created it collaboratively.
“We began this collaborative project in the summer of 2005,” says Lada. Not long before that time, Lada-Uhorczak, then aged 96, had just moved in with Sophia. Lada-Uhorczak had been living in Philadelphia with her husband. But, after he passed away, she could not remain in her home alone as she was suffering from age-related memory loss.
Having her mother move into her small studio apartment where Lada not only lived but created her art was a big adjustment. It meant Lada had to take on the responsibilities of a caregiver and find ways to occupy her mother who could not leave the apartment on her own.
“I wanted to spend this time with my mother in a creative way,” says Lada. A painter, she originally thought of painting her portrait, but discounted that idea as her mother would “have to sit there and do nothing.”
“A rushnyk to commemorate my mother’s work in folk embroidery seemed like the perfect project for us,” says Lada.
Born in Krakiv in the 1940s, Lada, who grew up in Philadelphia, was sent to art school by her mother when she was 9. Her interest in art continued in high school, and she later completed a design program at Moore College of Art School and graduated from the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts.
With her fine arts credentials under her belt, she began drawing on her personal reflections into the folklore of the ancient spiritual culture of Ukraine, painting mythological forest creatures in egg tempra, oil, acrylic and gouache. Later, she painted a series of works inspired by the goddesses of Old Europe, in gouache on paper or acrylic on canvas. Most recently, she has been fashioning goddess figures out of paper, thread and twine.
As an artist, she is interested in taking objects she finds and giving them new life. This interest in recycling objects is evident in the rushnyk commemorating her mother. In its design, Lada incorporated pieces of table runners, embroidered in complicated stitches by her mother years ago. A pillow Lada-Uhorczak had embroidered at the age of 82 is also incorporated into the design. Other sections of the rushnyk were embroidered by her mother in 2005, using the simpler cross stitches that she is still able to remember, with threads that Lada found lying around in her apartment.
The overall design of the rushnyk was created by Lada, who plotted out sections of it on a paper grid. She drew a picture of her mother’s face and hands, and then guided her mother through the embroidery. Around the edges of the rushnyk, the surnames Lada-Uhorczak had during her lifetime (her maiden name and her two husbands’ name) and the year of her birth and the year she completed the rushnyk are embroidered with black thread.
Other symbols specific to her life that are incorporated into the design are butterflies, representing her butterfly pin collection, and a string of corals with a Hutsul cross, like the one she used to often wear. In the four corners of the rushnyk are embroidered squares that represent the four seasons.
The project not only appealed to the interests of Lada, who is a former curator of the Oseredok Art Gallery and Museum in Winnipeg, it enthralled her mother. Lada-Uhorczak worked on it daily for four consecutive months.
In her early years, Lada-Uhorczak, who was born in Bolekhiv in Western Ukraine, was a master dressmaker in Lviv, where she managed a shop and had 8 other seamstresses working under her. During the Second World War, she suffered through the death of her husband, Sophia’s father, Markian Lada, and ended up in a Displaced Persons Camp in Germany. Even in the camp, she continued to embroider, sending her cushions and ritual cloths to be sold at a store run by Ukrainians in Philadelphia.
When she immigrated to the United States, as a young widow who had to provide for her family, she embroidered only in what little spare time she had in between raising a family, working in a factory and sewing dresses on order for clients.
Now, decades later, after a lifetime of productivity, she still feels the need to keep busy. Every day, as soon after she gets up, she goes to her worktable to embroider. Sophia's apartment is decorated with the many hanging embroidered ornaments her mother makes. Boxes of embroidered toys, including building blocks covered with colourful stitching, are ready to give to Lada-Uhorczak's great-granddaughter Aurora, when she turns one later this year.
For the baptism of Aurora, the daughter of her grandson, the award-winning photographer and digital illustrator Mir Lada, and his wife Leda, Lada-Uhorczak embroidered table decorations for the reception.
These lovingly made objects and the commemorative rushnyk will allow Aurora to learn about her great-grandmother. Through these innovative keepsakes, an ancient Ukrainian tradition is not only being passed on to a next generation, but reinvented for a new century.
To learn more about Sophia Lada and her art, visit. www.sophialada.com . To learn more about photographer Mir Lada visit. www.mirlada.com
TORONTO - A recent visit to the studio of artist Sophia Lada was an almost spiritual experience. Along one wall of the studio hang panels of a 6-by-11-foot triptych, the central part a life-size rendering of the Oranta with arms uplifted - Mary the Protectress of All. To her right, three saints: the Venerable Mary of Egypt, St. Helene (mother of Emperor Constantine) and St. Mary Magdalen. To the left of the Oranta: the martyr St. Barbara, St. Olha the Great, princess of Kyiv, and St. Catherine of Alexandria. The triptych is destined for the chapel of the Mother House of the Sisters of St. Basil the Great in Rome.
Several years ago, the Sisters of St. Basil the Great approached Lada [who prefers to be called Lada - no Ms.] with a proposal to paint the walls of their chapel, which is located in an older building, a former villa adapted for the order's use, in the Avantino district of Rome. The Basilian Sisters were familiar with Lada's work as she had been artist-in-residence at Manor College in Philadelphia, which is run by the order.
The initial stage of the project involved a trip to Rome where Lada discussed with Mother Dia Stasiuk and the Basilian Sisters the selection of saints to be painted and made a plan of how to divide the walls of the chapel. Although the chapel is not large - 15 by 45 feet - it has a very high ceiling that gave the artist lots of space in which to work.
The Basilian Sisters wanted the iconography of the chapel to observe the canons of Byzantine ecclesiastical art; they helped choose the specific icons to be featured. The choice of colors was governed both by the fact that certain colors are attached to different saints and that colors have symbolic meanings of their own. Colors were chosen to evoke a spiritual response and to achieve a harmonious whole.
Where had Lada learned iconography? "The acclaimed iconographer Sviatoslav Hordynsky introduced me to the history of iconography. During the 1970s I assisted him in the execution of several church projects (for Munich and western Canada) in his style and technique. I learned a lot from him. It is unavoidable that, at the present time, his influence is visible in my work," Lada said.
Since the paintings were to be done in Toronto and had to be rolled up and transported to Rome, Lada chose to do them on canvas in acrylic paints. Traditional iconography is done in egg tempera for which a rigid surface is required. Canvas was also chosen because Aventino, where the chapel is located, is sometimes subject to earth tremors that can crack walls. Canvas is more flexible.
Part of the icons of the project have already been installed. They included the composition on the wall behind the altar with the Pantokrator (Enthroned Christ) surrounded by the Seraphim and symbols of the Four Evangelists. To his right is the Blessed Mother and Archangel Michael; to the left - St. John the Baptist and Archangel Gabriel. On the side walls are St. Macrina, the patron saint of the Basilian Sisters, and St. John Chrysostom and St. Basil the Great, fathers of the Church.
Lada went to Rome in the spring of 1998 to do the installation. The canvas was applied to the wall by a local craftsman; Lada painted the ornamentation and applied the goldleaf. She was assisted by Sister Selina also an iconographer.
The second phase is to be completed this October, with Lada again going to Rome to oversee the installation. In addition to the triptych, which will be put on one wall of the central part of the chapel, icon paintings of St. Nicholas the Great, Ss. Cyril and Methodius and the Grand Prince of Kyiv, St. Vladimir, will be installed. The back wall of the chapel, which includes the exit, will feature the Guardian Angels of Day and Night, whose depiction was inspired by the collection of daily prayers "Prayers for a Planetary Journey."
To make sure that the second phase of the icons matched the first, Lada said, "I made color samples from the icons already in Rome and matched them up. The second part of the project was easier to do than the first. At first, it was hard to envision the icons in their place. After the first installation, I knew what the colors would look like. That was the most challenging part of the project - not doing the work there, on site, and not being able to see the work as it progressed within the environment it was to go into."
With this years-long project nearing completion, Lada said, "This has been the biggest project that I have worked on independently. I am looking forward to doing my own work and preparing an exhibit, but it takes time to adjust. Doing iconography takes a specific frame of mind. It is altogether a different spiritual journey, because, as an artist, my work is mostly inspired by the culture of pre-Christian Ukraine. But I do apply certain principles of Byzantine art in composition and in the philosophy of inner light. This project has been a very rewarding experience because it has given me an opportunity to execute work which is a part of my heritage and personally to see the treasures of Rome and the surrounding cities of Italy."
Copyright © The Ukrainian Weekly, September 5, 1999, No. 36, Vol. LXVII
see image of article along with extra bio information here
As our world wavers in upheaval and turmoil on the eve of the new millennium, we begin to recognize that our external selves have become so severed from our inner selves that we are out of touch with our true nature. It's called the New Age" in which those who are willing to slow down enough, search anew for that sacred space where the inner and outer worlds meet.
Our ancestors intuitively recognized the spirituality and wholeness of the universe, and they passed that knowledge to us through myth and ritual. But today, it is only the creative individuals who actively seeks and keeps that myth alive and who interprets the unseen for us.
Sophia Lada, aka Lada, is such an artist. "Reflections", her most recent body of work of gouaches, paintings and drawings, fuses contemplation on the past with mirrored images of the present.
"Seasonal rituals were part of our ancestors" daily lives", she comments. "Search for individuality and meaning was marked by these rituals, and the images I create have an intimate connection with the seasonal changes in my own life. It has been filled with turmoil, pain and joy, and putting it into visual form has been integral in my own healing process.
The series is painted in multiples, like a film strip, where each frame or painting is important to the whole, like season, marking major passages of the human life cycle. Color, form, rhythm in repeated line and metaphor, are unifying elements that expand Lada's visual vocabulary. Her gouaches are treated with a watery blue, inspired by the light of the night sky in the Canadian prairies where Lada lived and worked for five years. A solemn meditative effect of all-encompassing blues, indigos, violets, accentuated by bronzes and golds, intensifies the connection between healing power and natural phenomena, the sky and sea. Using such universal metaphors for metamorphosis as reptiles, snakes, outreaching tree limbs, Lada interweaves the earth cycle and the movement of the heavens with the ongoing rhythms of life, death and regeneration.
The viewer is immediately struck by the dominance of the female form in her work. Titles using words such as reflection, desire, unmasked, awakening, conformity, solitude,lunar visions, illumination, transformation, denote the growth process of an evolving consciousness. But that process is a baptism of fire. While the female forms, often doubled,resemble stylized manufactured mannequins, their faces reflect suffering, fragmentation, sadness, obscurity, entrapment, resignation. Their penetrative gaze reveals the untold: it is a gaze that projects a steel coldness, a charged defiance, a painful plea, a search for spiritual connection. Many of the figures hold their arms locked of bound and bolted over their hearts, as if to protect that which is within. They are set against a backdrop of repetitive elements: ever-present shadows of ancient female figures looming over metalic-like rectangles articulated by corner screws and intersected by variations on the mandala sphere, a symbol of unity and completeness.
By juxtaposing Tripillian goddesses with their modern prototypes, Lada's visual commentaries provide a way for looking in and looking out. The mask, ancient symbol for spirituality, becomes the reflecting medium the empowers us to unearth our potential feelings, and permit a vision of what lies hidden even to ourselves. The artist lifts the veil between the real and the imaginary, between the dreamed and the conceived.
For Lada, the spiritual culture of the Ukrainian people has been the inspiration and groundwork for the series. "Rituals, myths and folklore were always a part of the reality I grew up with. I'm fortunate to have been born into this heritage and feel it has given me the strength to understand my purpose," she states.
That purpose is to explore the celebration and mystification of the female form in
pre-Christian cultures, and examine it in the light of our contemporary image-conscious cultures demands to conformity. "In the universal search for inner meaning and spiritual connections are my own personal reflections on aging and acceptance, and the resulting conflict between the inner image of self and the outward compliance to society's standards," Lada explains.
Those standards are the subliminal messages pounded daily into our consciousness, namely, that for men and women alike, beauty and power are totally a function of fashion, form and role. Lada's work attests that true essence is an internal light, a spiritual radiance that is non-material and non-physical. "My aim is not to recreate cult images of the past," she concludes, "but rather to create visual imagery of an inner reality that is felt and can be shared only through art. I want to compel the viewer to experience a spiritual feeling about the need of unifying human form with nature and thereby to recharge their own connection to the community and cosmos."
The Ukrainian Weekly
Sunday April 17, 1994
STUDIO 204
900 QUEEN ST WEST
TORONTO, ONTARIO
M6J 1G6
416-588-8200
1965 PENNSYLVANIA ACADEMY OF THE FINE ARTS, Philadelphia PA Department of Painting Certificate, full scholarship
1961 MOORE COLLEGE OF ART, Philadelphia PA Department of Design, two year scholarship
2013 LOBBY GALLERY, 900 Queen St. West, Toronto ON
2009 FOUND THREADS, UCEC Gallery, Jenkintown PA
2007 FOUND THREADS, *new* gallery, Toronto ON
1993 REFLECTIONS • LUNAR VISIONS, St. Vladimir Institute Gallery, Toronto ON
1992 REFLECTIONS • SOLITUDE, Omega Centre Gallery, Toronto ON
1986 PRAIRIE FANTASY, Centennial Concert Hall, Saskatoon SK
1980 IMAGES IN NATURE • SUN'S JOURNEY, Manor College, Jenkintown PA
1980 IMAGES IN NATURE, Mountain Top Gallery, Windham NY
1979 TALE OF MARU, Trident Club Gallery, Toronto ON
1974 RECENT PAINTINGS BY LADA, Focus Gallery, Toronto ON
1973 NATURE AND FOLKLORE, The Fine Arts Gallery, Philadelphia PA
1972 RECENT PAINTINGS, Joseph Simon Studio, Philadelphia PA
1978 LADA • PAINTINGS, MADAY • WOODCUTS, Gallery EKO, Warren MI
1976 LADA • PAINTINGS, MADAY • WOODCUTS, La Salle College, Philadelphia PA
1997 THREE JOURNEYS, Cisaruk • Lada • Mordowanec-Regenbogen, Ukrainian Institute of Modern Art, Chicago ILL
1995 FULL CIRCLE, Cisaruk • Lada • Muchin, Multicultural Center Gallery, Central Michigan University MI
2014 IN THE ROUND ii, Graven Feather, Toronto
2011 WEST QUEEN WEST, Artscape Triangle Gallery, Toronto ON
2011 QUILT OF POSSIBILITIES, catalogue, Ontario Crafts Council Gallery, Toronto ON
2010 SHADOW BOX, Textile Museum of Canada, Toronto ON
2010 QUILT OF POSSIBILITIES, Royal Ontario Museum, Toronto ON
2009 SHADOW BOX, Textile Museum of Canada, Toronto ON
2008 ARTSCAPE AT THE GLADSTONE, Toronto, ON
2003 QUEEN WEST ARTS CRAWL, catalogue, Toronto ON
2000 CASTING OFF, organized by Janet Morton as part of her exhibit WOOL WORK, The Museum for Textiles, Toronto ON
1997 ONE BY ONE, An Artscape Show, Area Exhibition Space, Toronto ON
1995 UKRAINIAN MYTHOLOGY, FOLKLORE & LEGENDS, Detroit Scarab Club, catalogue
1994 QUILT PROJECT, Koffler Gallery, North York ON
1993 ART AND ETHNICITY, Art Gallery of Mississauga ON, National Traveling Show organized by the CANADIAN MUSEUM OF CIVILIZATION, Hull QC
1992 SPIRIT OF UKRAINE, Art Rental Gallery, Art Gallery of Hamilton ON
1991 ART AND ETHNICITY, catalogue Canadian Museum of Civilization, Hull QC
1991 BIENNALE '91, Liviv Art Gallery, Liviv, Ukraine
1990 VISIBLE HERITAGE, St. Volodymyr Cultural Centre, Oakville ON
1986 THIRTY FROM TORONTO, Ukrainian Canadian Art Foundation, Toronto ON
1986 MANITOBA THEATRE CENTRE, Winnipeg, MB
1985 THREE WOMEN ARTISTS, Fleet Gallery, Winnipeg MB
1982 INTERNATIONAL EXHIBIT OF UKRAINIAN ARTISTS, Ukrainian Art Foundation, Toronto ON
1979 EIGHT PHILADELPHIA ARTISTS, Manor College Gallery, Jenkintown PA
1977 FIVE UKRAINIAN ARTISTS, International House, Philadelphia PA
1976 PALEY LIBRARY GALLERY, Temple University, Philadelphia PA
1976 UKRAINIAN ART, University Museum, Philadelphia PA
1976 SIX WOMEN ARTISTS, UAA Gallery, New York, NY
1976 UKRAINIAN HERITAGE, Minnesota Museum of Art, St. Paul MN
1974 MEMBERS ANNUAL SHOW, Woodmere Art Gallery, Philadelphia PA
1973 GALLERY OF THE INTERNATIONAL INSTITUTE, Three Artists, St. Paul MN
1971 ARTISTS EQUITY MEMBERS SHOW, Civic Centre Museum, Philadelphia PA
1966 ARTISTS AGAINST THE WAR, Gallery 222, Philadelphia PA
1965 UKRAINIAN ARTS CLUB GALLERY, New York NY
1965 FELLOWSHIP ANNUAL, Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, Philadelphia PA
1994-95 DOCUMENTATION FACILITY ARCHIVIST Women's Art Resource Centre, Toronto ON
1992-93 GRANT PROJECT, REFLECTIONS Heritage Cultures Program of Multiculturalism and Citizenship Canada
1988-91 LIBRARY ASSISTANT, Ryerson Polytechnic University, Toronto ON
1984-88 ART PROJECTS AND MURALS, FREELANCE
1981-83 CURATOR OF ART GALLERY AND MUSEUM, PROGRAM COORDINATOR, EXHIBIT AND GRAPHIC ARTS DESIGNER Ukrainian Cultural and Educational Centre, Winnipeg, MB
1979-81 ARTIST IN RESIDENCE, ART PROGRAM COORDINATOR AND EXHIBIT DESIGNER Manor College, Jenkintown, PA
1975-79 ICON PAINTER ASSISTANT Sviatoslav Hordynsky Studio, New York City
1974 EXHIBIT DESIGNER Ukrainian Museum, Rome, Italy
1969-72 DESIGNER AND CO-OWNER OF "OSVITA", Jenkintown, PA Designed and published specialized teaching aids for pre-school.
1965-68 STAINED GLASS ARTIST, ASSISTANT Marco Zubar Studios, Philadelphia PA
1964-71 EXHIBIT DESIGN CONSULTANT, GRAPHIC ARTIST, MUSEUM PREPARATOR ASSISTANT and ARCHITECTURAL MODEL MAKER Civic Center Museum, Philadelphia PA
1999 BYZANTINE STYLE WALL ICONS, twenty one, 6 foot figures. Chapel in Rome, Italy
Generalate Sisters of St. Basil the Great
1992 FIVE X-RAY COLLAGE LIGHT BOXES, Marat Photography, Toronto,ON
1991 POSTER DESIGN, World Federation of Ukrainian Women's Organizations,
International circulation, Toronto ON
1991 BOOK COVER DESIGN, International Authors Festival, Holoborodko poems, published by Exile Press, Toronto ON
1988 THREE TWELVE FOOT ICON BANNERS, Millennium Mass, Exhibition Place, Toronto ON
1988 FOUR FIFTEEN FOOT MURALS, St. Michael's Extended Care Centre Chapel, Edmonton AB
1984 ANNUNCIATION, STAINED GLASS WINDOW DESIGN,
Chapel entrance, St. Vladimir and Olga Cathedral, Winnipeg,MB
UKRAINIAN MUSEUM, NYC
CANADIAN MUSEUM OF CIVILIZATION, Hull QC
ST. VLADIMIR CULTURAL CENTRE, Oakville ON
MANOR JUNIOR COLLEGE, Jenkintow, PA
HARVARD UNIVERSITY, Ukrainian Research Institute, Cambridge MS
UKRAINIAN MUSEUM, Rome, Italy
UKRAINIAN CANADIAN ART FOUNDATION, Toronto ON
NATIONAL ART MUSEUM OF UKRAINE, Kyiv
PRIVATE COLLECTIONS in Canada, USA and Europe
1995 EXHIBITION ASSISTANCE GRANT, Ontario Arts Council
1991 EXHIBITION DEVELOPMENT GRANT, Secretary of State, Multiculturalism and Citizenship 1990 EXHIBITION DEVELOPMENT GRANT, Secretary of State, ON Canada
2007 CFMT TV, live interiew during opening of FOUND THREADS show at *new gallery, TO
1999 CBC INTERNATIONAL RADIO, conversation about the Icons for the Generalate chapel in Rome, Italy with Olessia Czechut.
1996 CFMT TV, conversation with Renata Duma
1993 CFMT TV, interview with Renata Duma at opening of REFLECTIONS exhibit.
2013 OUT OF TRADITION, Contemporary Decorative and Applied Arts, exhibit catalogue, Ukrainian Museum NYC,
2009 OUR LIFE May 2009 Embroidery a Metamorphosis in Function and Beauty, USA
2007 fQaroundtown, September 17, 2007. Textile and Fibre arts events in Canada, fibreQuarterly.
2007 STITCHING TOGETHER A LIFETIME OF MEMORIES, by Olena Wawryshyn, New Pathway, November 8, 2007 Toronto
1999 TORONTO ARTIST CREATES ICONS FOR BASILIAN SISTERS’ CHAPEL IN ROME by Oksana Zakydalsky. THE UKRANIAN WEEKLY, Sunday, September 5,
1995 MULTICULTURAL CENTER ART SHOW EXAMINES ROLE OF WOMEN, by Summer Hallwood LIFE, Michigan
1994 SPOTLIGHT ON: “REFLECTIONS” ART WORKS BY LADA by Myrosia Stefaniuk,
THE UKRAINIAN WEEKLY, Sunday, April 17, 1994
1993 ART AND ETHNICITY, exhibit catalogue, Canadian Museum of Civilization
1993 UKRAINIAN HERITAGE AND ART IS CELEBRATED IN NATIONAL EXHIBITION AT THE ART GALLERY OF MISSISSAUGA, BRUSH UP, Member’s Newsletter, fall 1993
1991 ENCYCLOPEDIA OF UKRAINE University of Toronto Press, Vol. III
1991 ART AND ETHNICITY, exhibit catalogue, col. repro. pg.33, Can. Museum of Civilization
1991 BOOK COVER for ICARUS WITH BUTTERFLY WINGS & OTHER POEMS by Vasyl Holoborodko published by Exile Press for the International Authors Festival, Toronto,ON
1991 BIENNALE, LVIV ‘91, catalogue, colour reproduction
1986 UKRAINIANS’ FOLKLORE INFLUENCES ARTISTS WORK, by Deanna Herman,
STAR PHEONIX, Saskatoon, SK
1984 WINDOW FOR THE POPE, Winnipeg Free Press, Sept. 29, pg.61, photo.
1982 UKRAINIAN ARTISTS INTERNATIONAL EXHIBIT, Ukrainian Canadian Art Foundation TO.
1981 FOLKTALES, colour illustrations, pgs.9•12•16, pub. by Assoc. of Ukrainian Writers,Toronto
1980 IMAGES IN NATURE • SOPHIA LADA, THE DAILY MAIL, Catskill NY, vol. 101 no.158,July 5
1980 GREEN COUNTY COUNCIL ON THE ARTS Newspaper, members solo show, Mt.Top Gallery
1980 SOPHIA LADA ARTIST-IN-RESIDENCE, THE MACRINIAN, 1980 Manor College,
1974 ART EXHIBIT OF SOPHIA LADA AT FOCUS GALLERY, New Horizons,Nov.9 no.II 1973 SUCHASNIST, Art Exhibits in Philadelphia by Zenon L. Feszchak,May no.5 (149) Munich
1973 HYMNS TO THE SUN, by U. Lubovich, OUR LIFE, monthly mag. cover, 3pg. article, photos