Biennale of Naive Art and Primitivism “Velour Cat” named after Andrii Lipatov to the all-Ukrainian Day of Cultural Workers and Folk Art Masters (November,9) was founded by Oleksandr Osmerkin Art-Memorial Museum with the support of the Department of Culture and Tourism of the City Council of the town of Kropyvnytskyi.
    Among the co-organizers of the unique art event are the Public Institution “Museum of Arts of Kirovohrad Regional Council”, Gallery “Eelisavetgrad”, and Kirovohrad Regional Organization of the National Union of Artists of Ukraine. The information support is provided by the newspaper of the community of Kropyvnytskyi town “Vechirnia Gazeta”, Kropyvnytskyi television and radio broadcasting company “TTV”, as well as the National Union of Artists of Ukraine and all-Ukrainian magazine “Artania”.
    The art project aimed at preservation and development of the original folk traditions in the modern amateur and professional visual art, promotion of visual art as one of the effective means of the Ukrainian culture development, and perpetuation of the memory of the unique Naive master, fellow artist, a member of the National Union of Folk Art Masters of Ukraine Andrii Lipatov.
    Andrii Lipatov (1960-2010) was a mechanical engineer by specialization but an artist in heart. He lived a short but very bright life. His distinctive paintings were exhibited at exhibitions and festivals of folk, decorative and applied, and naive art not only in Ukraine but also in France, Russia, Great Britain, and Ireland. The works of the talented artist are kept in many museums and private collections in Ukraine and abroad. A mural depicting his painting “A walk along Dvortsova Street”, created in 2019 on the wall of the Museum of Arts to the 265th anniversary of Kropyvnytskyi, is a unique landmark of the town.
    A painting “Velour cat” (1998) by Andrii Lipatov is kept in the collection of Oleksandr Osmerkin Art-Memorial Museum. This painting gave the title to the artproject and became the basis of its logo and design of the certificate of participation in the Biennale. “This work with the image of velour cat does not only reflect the author’s view of the surrounding world but also is his self-portrait, and the monogram “A.L.” on the cat’s side points to that. Thanks to its ingenuousness and high artistic professionalism it reflects the general mood of two artistic styles – Naive art and Primitivism”, - the author of the scientific concept of the biennale, a leading researcher of the museum, art historian, Merited Artist of Ukraine Andrii Nadezhdin mentioned.
    In 2020, the Biennale was held virtually because of the lockdown throughout Ukraine to prevent the further spread of COVID-19 and according to the restriction to hold public events of any kind.
    The exposition of the virtual exhibition of the participants of the First Biennale of Naive Art and Primitivism “Velour Cat” named after Andrii Lipatov to the all-Ukrainian Day of Cultural Workers and Folk Art Masters consists of 227 works by 55 artists from different regions in Ukraine.
    As the main task of the Biennale is the contribution to the development of amateur and professional creative work based on the appeal to the folk art traditions, a form of artistic and rural folklore, discovery and support of talented artists who work in Naive Art and Primitivism, the participants of the event became both professional artists – People’s Artist of Ukraine Mykhailo Nadezhdin (Kropyvnytskyi), Merited Artists of Ukraine Yurii Kafarskyi (Mohyliv-Podilskyi, Vynnytsia obl.), Andrii Nadezhdin and Serhii Shapovalov (Kropyvnytskyi), Merited Folk Art Master of Ukraine Oleksandra Prenko (Kropyvnytskyi), iconic figures of modern Ukrainian visual art, painters Volodymyr Kabachenko (Odesa) and Anatolii Furlet (Chernivtsi), members of the National Unions of Artists and Folk Art Masters of Ukraine, amateur artists who successfully fulfill themselves through visual art.
    Neo-baroque, symbolism, surrealism, fantasy, decorativism, realism, and aesthetic kitsch roughly define the main movements of creative searches of the artists whose works are shown in the exposition of the exhibition of the Biennale participants. Each artist tries to develop a unique artistic idea overcoming the boundaries of any style features and generally accepted art cliches. The exhibition proves that freedom of artistic choice and desire for its practical implementation is the main characteristics of modern Ukrainian visual art.