Conflict Zones: Three Generations - Exhibit at the Ukrainian National Museum

CHICAGO - June 16, 2013 - PRLog -- This upcoming Independence weekend, experience something especially meaningful; view freedoms’ struggle through a soldier’s eyes. The Ukrainian National Museum is proud to invite you to  

Conflict Zones: Three Generations

A multimedia exhibit by The Independence Fund, American Legion Post 943, Ukrainian American Veterans Post 32, curator Jerry Kykisz.

July 5 – August 25, 2013

We encourage you to view this compelling multimedia exhibit. Three conflicts: Korea, Vietnam and the Global War on Terror. Three generations of soldiers… all different, yet very much the same.  This exhibit includes photographs by combat photo journalists, paintings by combat veterans and a digital presentation by Ukrainian American Veterans.

The exhibit starts with photographs from the Korean conflict in the 1950’s. There are also over 80 photographs dedicated to Vietnam. Pictures capture the war, as well as the soldiers and civilians living through the devastation. Not limited to photographs, the burden of those conflicts, agony, and death, is shared in the soldiers’ paint and pain on canvas. The visual expression of their PTSD and night terrors reflect the problems that still impact soldiers in the current Global War on Terror. And finally, the continuing problems faced by those American veterans who bore the brunt of the wars of the 20th and  21st centuries, the numerous trips into harm’s way and the thousands lost after the attacks of September 11, 2001. This exhibit is an opportunity to see the many facets of their human struggle, the harsh realities and nuances of war, their common past and their commitment to their country, America.

Artwork displayed in the exhibit include photographs by Andrea Bruce, Joel Chaverri, Jason P. Howe, Holly Pickett, Jeff Newton, Joao Silva, Jackie Spinner and paintings by Ron Mann, Helen White, Joe Fornelli, Steve Johnson and Kristy L. Herman.

This exhibit is dedicated to all the generations of brave men and women who served, and continue to serve, in our Armed Forces.

Exhibit sponsored by Selfreliance Ukrainian American Federal Credit Union.

Artists’ Information:

ANDREA BRUCE is a documentary photographer and worked for The Washington Post for eight years, covering the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Her awards include top honors from the White House News Photographers Association (where she has been named Photographer of the Year four times), several awards from the International Pictures of the Year contest and the prestigious John Faber award from the Overseas Press Club in New York.

JOEL CHAVERRI is a sergeant in the U.S. Marine Corps Reserve. He served in Iraq as a photographer and journalist and reported on the Battle of Fallujah in November 2004. He is the recipient of the 2004 Department of Defense “Photojournalist of the Year” award and currently works for the Department of Veterans Affairs supporting readjustment services at the Vet Centers in North Texas.

JASON P. HOWE is a British freelance photographer who has spent the last decade specializing in conflict coverage. He is best known for his extensive work on Colombia but also spent two years on the ground in Iraq and has been based in Afghanistan since early 2007.

JEFF NEWTON is a producer for 60 Minutes and has been working at CBS News for the past nine years. He has been covering war for newspapers, wire services and television for 19 years. His first war was in Bosnia in 1991 at age 24. Since then, he has traveled to 71 countries covering some of the top news events in the world, from Afghanistan to Iraq to Kosovo. In 2006, his work with Correspondent Lara Logan in Ramadi, Iraq, was awarded a national Emmy Award, the David Kaplan Award for overseas war reporting by the Overseas Press Club of America and an Edward R Murrow Award from Radio and Television News Director Association.

HOLLY PICKETT worked at The Spokesman-Review in Spokane, Wa., before moving to Cairo in 2008 to work as a freelance journalist. Since hitting the road, she has photographed some of the world's most interesting and conflicted places, including Afghanistan, Iraq, Gaza and Yemen. Pickett is passionate about documenting the hopes, fears and struggles of regular people living in extraordinary circumstances.

JOAO SILVA began his career with the Alberton Record, a local paper in South Africa. In 1991 Joao worked for The Star, a Johannesburg daily newspaper, as a staff photographer before joining the Associated Press in 1994. Silva became a regular freelancer for the New York Times in 1996. In 2000 Joao became a contract photographer with the New York Times. In 2000, Silva co-authored “The Bang-Bang Club” with Greg Marinovich, a factual account of press photographers who covered the end of the apartheid era in South Africa. In 2005 Silva published “In The Company of God,” a photographic book on the Iraqi Shi'a during the American occupation and fragile democracy that followed. Silva has won numerous awards.

JACKIE SPINNER is an award-winning journalist based in the Middle East, where she is currently a U.S. Fulbright Scholar in Oman. She was a staff writer for the Washington Post for 14 years and covered the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. She is the author of Tell Them I Didn't Cry: A Young Journalist's Story of Joy, Loss, and Survival in Iraq (Scribner 2006). She is the co-director of Conflict Zone.

RON MANN, is a painter and a former Helicopter Door Gunner and Infantryman. His work has also been shown in the Chicago Peace Museum’s “Children of War” exhibit.

HELEN WHITE served in Vietnam as an Army Nurse in the Corp. Office. Currently retired from nursing, Helen White devotes herself full time to her art. She has published a book of her paintings entitled “Lipstick and a Smile.”  Her work is featured on the artKC website at www.artkc.com.

JOE FORNELLI, a former Army helicopter crew chief, is a prominent Chicago area artist and one of the founding members of the NVVAM (National Vietnam Veterans Art Museum).

STEVE JOHNSON, joined the Royal Army Ordnance Corp in Sep. 1992 as an Ammunition specialist.  His first tour of Bosnia in 1993 was in assistance to the UN Peace keeping mission. Steve Johnson is currently serving a 7 Month tour of duty in the Helmand Province of Afghanistan.   His paintings serve as a means of recording his PTSD and night terrors. He is still painting today while on duty in Afghanistan.

KRISTY L. HERMAN, former Captain, United States Air Force is a graduate of Concordia University with BA in Fine Art. Currently living Kaiserslautern, Germany, Kristy Herman works for the DLA – Energy, managing fuel for military operations throughout Europe and Africa. Kristy Herman works in acrylic, collage and watercolor.

Ukrainian National Museum, 2249 W Superior St,Chicago. Hours: Thurs-Sun, 11am-4 pm  Adults $5.00, Children under 12 - Free.

Free Parking, www.ukrainiannationalmuseum.org. Info: (312) 421-8020 or e-mail info@UkrainianNationalMuseum.org