° 1982

Lives in Kyiv (UA), born in Kyiv (UA).

Nikita Kadan (°1982, Kyiv) is an Ukrainian artist working and living in Kyiv. He works with various media, including installation, sculpture, painting, collage.

Kaden graduated from the National Academy of Fine Arts and Architecture in 2007 in the department of monumental painting. He is active as a member of the creative group R.E.P. (Revolutionary Experimental Space), which arose during the Ukrainian Orange Revolution in Kyiv in 2004. Furthermore he is since 2008 a member of the "Khudrada" curatorial group.

Starting in 2016, he has been a member of the editorial team of Prostory, an online publication of artistic and social criticism.

Kadan represented Ukraine at the Venice Biennale in 2015. In 2019, he was the curator of the "Gestures of Attitude" exhibition series at the Kyiv Art Museum named after Y. D. Bukhanchuk. He was also awarded several prizes, receiving the First Prize of the PinchukArtCentre in 2011, the Special Future Generation Art Prize in 2014 and the Kazimir Malevich Prize in 2016. Finally he was also a laureate of the Taras Shevchenko National Prize of Ukraine in 2022.

Nikita Kadan is one of the Ukrainian artists who appeared on the art scene in the wake of the Orange Revolution. To a large extent, this historical moment determined his artistic practice; a practice in which reflection on his own position in the social and political environment, involvement in social processes and an awareness of his own political and historical responsibility are important components. Unlike the previous generation of artists who were mostly focused on the aestheticization of the subconscious, Kadan's work appeals to the conscious position of a citizen in society and provokes active actions. The core of his work has a socio-critical direction, mostly focusing on negative phenomena and sometimes dedicated to a rethinking of the country's past. Thus, he considers the role of the artist not as an aesthete and contemplator, but as an initiator of socially useful transformations in various fields.

His works are currently held in collections of the Munich Pinakothek (Pinakothek der Moderne), the M HKA Museum of Modern Art in Antwerp, the MUMOK Museum of Modern Art in Vienna, the National Art Museum in Kyiv, the Kontakt Collection (Vienna) and The Art Collection Telekom (Bonn), the Center Georges Pompidou (Paris, France) .