The spring season of 2022 began with a series of events within the framework of the international project CityX Foundation Link, in cooperation between Ukraine, the USA, and Georgia (Sakartvelo). The Ukrainian side was represented by the Kharkiv Municipal Gallery and the VOVATANYA Gallery.

CityX is a collection of NFTs representing the brightest artists of the city of Kharkiv of the 20th–21st centuries. The initiative is based on the foundation of the CityHA project of 2017–2018 — organized by the Kyiv National Art Museum and the Kharkiv Municipal Gallery — which had a great impact on the gallery sphere in Kharkiv and Ukraine.

Between 2022–2025, panel discussions, presentations, participation in conferences, and art fairs took place. The CityX project visited Paris, Lisbon, Valencia, New York, and Mexico. The director of the Municipal Gallery — Tetyana Tumasyan — together with the CityX team participated in all discussions related to the Ukrainian NFT collection of artists, spoke about Ukrainian art, raising the issue of the potential loss of art as a result of the full-scale war in Ukraine.

The mission of CityX is to preserve Ukrainian art through NFT technology and to support Ukrainian artists in Kharkiv and galleries affected by the war; CityX contributes to the restoration of cultural spaces. Thanks to innovative technologies — blockchain and non-fungible tokens (NFTs) — experts and art enthusiasts can ensure the protection and longevity of Ukrainian art.

Ukrainian art masters of the 20th century — Borys Kosarev, Vasyl Myronenko, Vagrich Bakhchanyan, and many other renowned artists — made an important contribution to the development of world art. Their creative progress continued in the art of contemporary artists: Gamlet Zinkivskyi, Artem Volokitin, Roman Minin.

The first collection of CityX Foundation included works by 13 outstanding Kharkiv artists whose creative ideas impress and inspire with their innovative and bold concepts, and their successors:

• Borys Kosarev, Swimming Pool, 1920s. Paper, pencil. 30 x 19.5 cm. Link
• Vasyl Myronenko, Kharkiv in 1954, 1951. Paper, color etching. 50 x 40. Link
• Vagrich Bakhchanyan, Untitled, 1990. Paper, collotype. 19.3 x 15.5. Link
• Vitaliy Kulikov, Lilith, 2004. Canvas, oil. 86 x 56. Link
• Oleh Mitasov, Borys Redko, Rabbit, 1990. Fiberboard, oil, nitro paint, acrylic. 70 x 50. Link
• Serhii Bratkov, Sex Shop. Rabbit, 2016. Photo, collage. 60 x 90. Link
• Olena Lisnycha, America’s Nightmare, 2009. Oil. 90 x 56. Link
• Stanislav Hadzevych, Tableware, 2008. Canvas, oil. 60 x 90. Link
• Ihor Illinsky, Kiss, 2016. Canvas, oil. 50 x 65. Link
• Artem Volokitin, Photosynthesis, 2016–2017. Canvas, oil. 160 x 130. Link
• Roman Minin, Friendship Saves, 2010. Canvas, acrylic, enamel. 60 x 80. Link
• Gamlet Zinkivskyi, 9 People Indifferent to Everything, 2011. Paper. 70 x 100. Link
• Gamlet Zinkivskyi, Roman Minin, Gogol Dreamed of Wild Beasts (fragment of a fresco), 2008. Acrylic. 200 x 150. Link

The first event of the CityX project was the Digital Art Fair CADAF, the fifth digital art fair in the Web3 gallery, held from November 11 to 13, 2022, in New York. Since 2019, CADAF has been organizing digital art fairs showcasing about 1,000 works by over 500 artists from around the world. CADAF events have taken place in New York, Miami, Paris, and virtually.

Within the Art Fair CADAF 2023 (New York), five Ukrainian artists from the CityX NFT collection were presented: Vitaliy Kulikov, Artem Volokitin, Hamlet Zinkivskyi, Olena Lisnycha, Ihor Illinsky. Digital designer from Kharkiv Bohdan Kiyas (Inst. @kiya5ura) “animated” the artworks in 3D, marking CityX’s first step into the NFT and crypto-art field at an international event of this scale.

The second event — NFT Paris — took place from February 24 to 27, 2023. NFT industry professionals showed great interest in our project during the presentation and panel discussion. They especially appreciated the NFT version of our analog works, which complements and promotes real art. The artists received compliments, and the event organizers offered new ideas. NFT Paris became an important step in merging the NFT space and convinced us that creators and brands are actively collaborating for the development of digital art.

From April 11 to 14, 2023, the CityX art project was presented at the NFT NYC panel discussion “Bridging the Material and the Immaterial through NFT” in New York. One of the CityX project founders, Asya Nikolaeva, was the official speaker. All panels and round tables were held with a large number of interested listeners.

From April 15 to 16, the “Wonder Fair” festival took place in SoHo (New York) at the “Ideal Glass” gallery — an international exhibition of NFTs and analog works. The multimedia festival in the heart of bohemian New York, in a district famous for its galleries worldwide. The exhibition was also accompanied by a powerful parallel program: lectures, artists and curatorial talks, literary readings, concerts, and DJ sets.

Our presentation (speakers: Asya Nikolaeva and Tetyana Tumasyan, founders of the CityX Foundation) received a lively response and resonance — people approached throughout the evening with questions and words of support. The CityX team expressed its position regarding Ukrainian cultural heritage, Kharkiv galleries, and artists during wartime.

Parallel to the events in New York, CityX launched a two-week online auction on the OpenSea marketplace, which successfully sold all three NFT rabbits (NFT paintings by Olena Lisnycha, Oleh Mitasov and Borys Redko, and a photo-collage by Serhii Bratkov), with proceeds directed to support Kharkiv artists, their families, and Ukrainian culture.

The leading independent digital media resource Cointelegraph, covering a wide range of news about blockchain technology, crypto assets, and new trends in financial technology, recognized the CityX team as pioneers of the NFT avant-garde in the art world.

https://cointelegraph.com/press-releases/mother-daughter-duo-combines-nfts-and-tangible-art-to-showcase-ukrainian-avant-garde-at-nft-nyc 

https://cointelegraph.com/news/how-nfts-help-to-empower-ukrainian-artists-and-preserve-fragile-art-qa-with-cityx?fbclid=PAAaaY97GKYoDsLOejyFdlXTpagDTwTlRwMrL1BwsZBj9F0-9750T_WNQloRw

From May 17 to 21, the Volta art fair took place in New York. Volta is an international art project through which commercial galleries from around the world receive a platform every year since 2005. According to the project founders, their fair is special “for its hospitality and innovation.”

Within the framework of the annual NFT NYC event, which took place on April 5, 2024, the second unique CityX Foundation collection “Ulive” was presented, including 16 artworks by 13 young Ukrainian artists:

• Mitya Fenyichkin, «ERASED» Link
• Ave, «CREATION PIPELINE» Link
• Love Curly, «SUCK MY DREAMS» Link, «TWO IN ONE» Link
• Maria Matienko, «HOPE» Link
• Bohdana Zayats, «EACH SERIES» Link
• Denys Kulikov, «TRIDENT» Link, «OBSERVER» Link, «THE BIOLOGY OF LOVE» Link
• Sofia Suliy, «MUSHLI (2 SHELLS)» Link
• Bohdan Agafonov, «FINGERPRINT M» Link
• Oles Derega, «DREAM» Link
• Eugenia Vynokurova, «UNKNOWN REALITY» Link
• Maria Maslova, «BIRTH/REBIRTH» Link
• Nadiya Heart, «IMMORTALITY» Link
• Masha Reva, «ANTICIPATION» Link

The curator of the project was Eugenia Brodska. The digital collection was created in collaboration with the Italian 3D studio Hyperlab. The soundtrack to the digital artworks was written by DJ Koloah.

Also, within the framework of the project, digital and some original physical works from the previous collection were presented.

At the annual international art fair ZⓢONAMACO MÉXICO ARTE CONTEMPORÁNEO 2025 Link in Mexico (held in Mexico City since 2003), from February 5 to 9, 2025, the CityX project and the partner gallery CUT ART (Latvia, Riga) Link were presented at booth EJ07. This major event became an important step in popularizing contemporary Ukrainian art and a reason to talk about the creation of a unique artistic expression in the conditions of the largest armed conflict in modern European history.

The teams were represented by three female artists: Anna Egle, Yulia Sylova, and Municipal Gallery artist Tetyana Malinovska (Inst. @tetiana.malinovskaa). Their creative expression was dedicated to rethinking the concept of “freedom” through forms of contemporary art.

From March 15 to May 2, the project “Furious Spring — Lost Spring” by Tetyana Tumasyan and Tetyana Malinovska took place in Riga, at the CUT ART gallery. The co-author of the project was Cary Fukunaga, known as the showrunner of the series “True Detective,” and the guest was Hollywood actress Eva Green.

From May 8 to 11, 2025, CityX and CUT ART presented an exhibition in memory of the renowned American film director and artist David Lynch at Art Busan 2025 (Busan, Korea). The exhibition featured six rare lithographs by the artist, created between 2007 and 2012, from the 15/30 series. Like most of his works, the pieces exhibited were dark and surreal in nature, revealing the irrationality of the subconscious depths.

Since its founding in 2012, Art Busan has held art exhibitions and fairs every May in one of South Korea’s largest cities. The David Lynch exhibition, presented by Tetiana Malinovska, marked the genius artist’s first exposition in the country. South Korean painter Shin Seung-Hun was the invited artist.

The work of the CityX team does not stop. This large project remains active and continues to be developed and expanded. After successful presentations of the first two collections that attracted attention across several continents, the project team is preparing the third one.