Artist and art advocate Zhenya Gershman, internationally renowned for her dramatic monumental portraits of iconic public and private figures, presents ICU2, an exhibition giving visibility to the homeless. This exhibition explores the artist’s interaction with the streets of New York City. The paintings are created with a mixture of oil and empathy on canvas. Often, the subjects are portrayed as larger than life, engaging the viewer and nearly sculpted with a special engraving tool. This produces a much more tangible, three-dimensional effect, rendering them genuinely “felt” and real.

Zhenya believes that the artist’s duty is to apply their talent to call attention to where help is most needed. In her words: “together with responsive viewers, we can make a real change.” She was born in Eastern Europe and began her career exhibiting in galleries and museums at the age of fifteen. Private and public collections include the Douglas Simon, Richard Weisman, and Arte Al Limite Museum in Santiago, Chile. In 2022, Zhenya launched the art movement Brushes Over Bullets after her portrait, “First Face of War”, was sold for $100,000 at Heritage Auctions to benefit Ukraine. The Manhattan Power List honored Zhenya for her work with the homeless with their 2025 award.