Contemporary Ukrainian paintings are so interesting and colorful. Their genres are various from still-life, landscape, impressionism, abstract, avant-garde, to urban art. They were inspired by the modern daily life of the Ukrainian, folklore, historical legacy, natural beauty, as well as social and political issues. Their works are well accepted both in their home country and abroad, including by the world’s leading art institutions, like MoMA and Tate.
Here we collect some Contemporary Ukrainian artists that will cherish your life:
1. Maria Polyakova
Maria Polyakova is a Kyiv-based artist. She was inspired by the children, animals, and picturesque landscapes of Ukraine. One of her subjects is an encountering of traditional life with modernity. In Modern Ukrainian Fair Painting, she depicts craftsmen and artists who sell their products to visitors in a traditional market. Her colors are bright and enchanting. Polyakova also portrays the subjects wearing Ukrainian traditional outfits with their beautiful embroidery and corollas. Her works can be accessed on https://www.saatchiart.com/account/artworks/1251363
Maria Polyakova, Modern Ukrainian Fair Painting.
https://www.saatchiart.com/
2. Ivan Marchuk
Ivan Marchuk was born in Moskalivka, Halychyna, in 1936. He comes from a weaver’s family. Marchuk is well-known for his technique named Pliontanism (From the Ukrainian “pliontaty” – to weave, knit). He is also a representative of Ukrainian artists who openly oppose social realism-the official art style of the Soviet Union. During the Soviet era, he moved from one country to another, like to Australia and Canada, but he was always drawn back to his home country.
Awakening is Marchuk’s work created in 1992. This painting portrays a woman in the middle of flowers. Her body and environment, including the sun, were painted as the knitting of brown tendrils. From the distance, the intertwining lines merge into one color. His work is powerful and mesmerizing, reminding us of the strength and tenderness of the mother of earth.
Ivan Marchuk. Awakening (1992).
https://www.wikiart.org/
3. Eugenia Gapchinska
Eugenia Gapchinska is a Kharkiv-born artist. She is famous for the cute and whimsical character in her paintings. Gapchinska has held more than a dozen exhibitions in several countries, like in Ukraine, Russia, France, Belgium, England, and the Netherlands. She also has her own galleries in many cities across Ukraine, such as in Kyiv, Odessa, and Dnipropetrovsk. In this gallery, the visitor can buy original paintings and merchandise, like handbags, pillows, plates, books. Frida by Eugenia Gapchinska depicts the portrait of Frida Kahlo in a green background with a flowers pattern. We maybe be familiar with this photo. Gapchinska uses her interpretation and style to redraw Frida Kahlo’s photo. As the result, a sweet and iconic portrait painting appears.
Eugenia Gapchinska, Frida.
https://www.artland.com/artworks/eugenia-gapchinska-frida
4. Vasiliy Tsagolov
Vasiliy Tsagolov is a Ukrainian Postwar & Contemporary painter who was born in 1957 in Digora, Russia. His work was inspired by a clip or scene in a film that depicts certain characters, like aliens, monsters, criminals, or villains. Through his works, Tsagolov criticizes the mythology of mass culture and an acute socio-political orientation with a dash of dark humor.
The Carpathian portal is a work from the Ukrainian X-Files series (2018 – 2020). This painting is a colorful scene of aliens invading a land, riding an ant. A spaceship flying over it. Transcarpathia is a part of the Ukraine region located beyond the Carpathian Mountains and borders some countries, like Romania, Hungary, Slovakian, and Poland.
Vasiliy Tsagolov. The Carpathian Portal.
https://strangetime.art/participants/vasyl-tsagolov/
