Opening Night: Postcode Ukraine: Diary of a Volunteer

Mark Neville has lived and worked in Kyiv since 2020. He photographs the volunteers, families, and communities living through Russia's full-scale invasion, and he makes the pictures on aid trips to frontline towns. Postcode Ukraine: Diary of a Volunteer brings that work to Los Angeles for the first time.

The photographs stay with the people behind the headlines. Children growing up in wartime. Volunteers supplying their neighbors. Families holding on to routine, dignity, and hope. War is measured here by what people refuse to give up: family, friendship, creativity, joy, a sense of ordinary life.

Guest curators each chose one photograph and wrote about why it matters now: Kateryna Babkina, Sir Stephen Fry, Beth Greenacre, Justin Jampol, Max Klymenko, Andrey Kurkov, Oleksandra Matviichuk, Alyssa Milano, Kathy Nalywajko, Lara Salmon, Sharon Stone, and Prince Harry.

Doors open to the public at 7:30 p.m. Mark Neville will be in attendance.

All proceeds support Postcode Ukraine, the Kyiv-based charity Neville co-founded. Since 2022 it has funded more than $500,000 in local aid, including food, water, generators, and emergency assistance.

Postcode Ukraine: Diary of a Volunteer is presented by the Wende Museum at Westwood Contemporary, the Wende Museum's pop-up exhibition space in Westwood. The exhibition is on view September 11 through September 30, 2026, Wednesday and Thursday from 4 to 8 p.m. and Friday through Sunday from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.

Mark Neville is a British artist based in Kyiv who works across art, activism, and documentary photography. He has had solo exhibitions at the Andy Warhol Museum in Pittsburgh, the Imperial War Museum in London, and The Photographers' Gallery in London. His books include Stop Tanks with Books, Battle Against Stigma, and Diary of a Volunteer.