On June 19, 2026, at 6:00 PM, Enrico Ravegnani and Les Noms Galerie will present the exhibition “Kolya Novikov: Outcast, Rebel, Artistic Genius” — an artistic project that immerses visitors in the life and work of one of the most underestimated artistic geniuses of the twentieth century.

Dates: June 20 – July 20, 2026

Opening: June 19, 2026, at 6:00 PM (by invitation only)

Palazzo Della Raccheta, Ferrara, Via Vaspergolo 6

Mykola Novikov was an outstanding artist who became an Odessa legend during his lifetime. Kyiv, Kharkiv, and Odessa formed the geographical triangle that shaped the development and dissemination of the Ukrainian artistic avant-garde during the first half of the twentieth century. In the 1960s, during the period known as the “Thaw,” a circle of artists emerged who rejected Socialist Realism and returned to the traditions of the avant-garde. Among them was Kolya Novikov, a prominent representative of the Odessa underground art scene.

Renowned Austrian art historians, publicists, and curators of the 2015 Kyiv Biennial, Georg Schöllhammer and Hedwig Saxenhuber, recognized in Novikov’s work a scale and artistic power comparable to that of Egon Schiele and Pablo Picasso, describing him as an artist on the level of the most significant European masters of the twentieth century.

From the very beginning of his life, Novikov had to fight for survival. Poverty, the murder of his mother by the Nazis, a father who lost both legs in the war, the death of his sister in an orphanage, involvement in the criminal underworld, arrests — these experiences shaped his destiny. The leitmotif of the exhibition is Novikov’s perpetual and involuntary rebellion against a system that refused to accept him either as an artist or as an individual.

His life story is a harmonious combination of rebellion, marginality, and genius, while his paintings constitute a visual manifesto of inner resistance, expressed through an aggressive and nervous painterly language. The exhibition “Kolya Novikov: Outcast, Rebel, Artistic Genius” is a journey through the artist’s eccentric life and creative legacy, reflecting both the dramatic struggle of an extraordinary personality against the world and his constant search for a place within a society that rejected, ignored, and surrounded him with hostility.

“French gallerist Christine Colas personally invited Mykola Novikov after recognizing his works as the most compelling. She invited him to move to Paris, promising him a studio, every possible condition for creative work, promotion, and opportunities to sell his art through the finest galleries. But Kolya said that without Odessa he would die immediately, that creativity could not exist without the environment in which he lived. That environment nourished and inspired him,” emphasizes art historian Halyna Kostina.

Exhibition Curator: Halyna Kostina, Art Historian

Project Expert:  Yurii Hutsu, Collector, Les Noms Galerie

Project Partner: Enrico Ravegnani 

Place: Palazzo della Raccheta, Ferrara, Via Vaspergolo 6