Exhibition: “Youth”
Ilya Vdovkin has only been living in Germany for a few months. His life in Ukraine was difficult, marked by hard work and hostility towards queer people. In Germany, he wants to start all over again. His vision of a happy life is revealed in the exhibition “Youth”, which we are showing at the Gay Queer Centre Sub from 1 April. The artist will be present for the opening.
In Ukraine, Ilya dreamed of becoming a fashion designer, but circumstances led him to become a welder. The homophobia he experienced as a queer teenager in his workplace broke him. He began to hate himself for his homosexuality.
In 2025, Ilya fled the war and came to Germany. Here, he found many queer friends who helped him start over and live his dream of becoming an artist. “Germany feels like home to me, unlike Ukraine, where I only have bad memories. Here, I dream of developing myself as an artist and fashion designer, which has been my dream since childhood.”
He is now presenting his works to the public for the very first time. In the exhibition “Youth”, which consists of twelve digital drawings, the now 18-year-old describes how he sees love between young men.
His pictures appear romantic and innocent, but behind each motif lies a deep longing for the moments of happiness that lovers share in everyday life. Ilya says: “Our love is not a perversion, but an expression of our humanity. We should all be allowed to strive for that.”
Ilya taught himself to draw in his youth, without art school, all on his own. Using Procreate, he designs his works on his iPad entirely from his imagination, without any templates. Sometimes he uses backgrounds to better understand perspective, but basically he draws everything himself.
Exhibition Youth
When 1 to 30 April 2026
Opening Wednesday, 1 April 2026, 7.30 p.m. with the artist present
Where Gay-Queer Centre Sub, Müllerstraße 14
Organisers Munich Kyiv Queer, Munich Pride, Cultural Department of the City of Munich
This is how you can donate
INDIVIDUAL HELP Munich Kyiv Queer has its own fundraising campaign via https://www.paypal.me/ConradBreyer to support queer people in Ukraine who are in need or on the run. Why? Because not all LGBTIQ* are organised in the local LGBTIQ*-groups. This help is direct, fast and free of charge if you choose the option “For friends and family” on PayPal. If you don’t have PayPal, you can alternatively send money to the private account of Conrad Breyer, speaker of Munich Kyiv Queer, IBAN: DE427015000021121454.
All requests from the community are meticulously checked in cooperation with our partner organisations in Ukraine. If they can help themselves, they take over. If the demands for help exceed their (financial and/or material) possibilities, we will step in.
HELP FOR LGBTIQ* ORGANISATIONS To support LGBTIQ* in Ukraine we have helped set up the Alliance Queer Emergency Aid Ukraine, in which around 40 German LGBTIQ* Human Rights organisations are involved. All these groups have access to very different Human Rights organisations in Ukraine and use funds for urgently needed care or evacuation of queer people. Every donation helps and is used 100 percent to benefit queer people in Ukraine. Donate here
VULNERABLE GROUP And here you can find out why queer people in war need our support.
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