Recognizable images
Exhibition of artwork by Volodymyr Sliepchenko launched in Lviv
The main exposition of art works by painter, graphic artist, and muralist, People’s Artist of Ukraine Volodymyr Sliepchenko that was launched at Lviv Palace of Arts features portraits of prominent Ukrainians (Taras Shevchenko, Nikolai Gogol, Andrei Sheptytsky, Stepan Bandera, Lina Kostenko, Vasyl Stus, Viacheslav Chornovil, Bohdan Stupka, Borys Voznytsky, etc. The total of 19 portraits is included in the series called “Chosen by Time”). The paintings are made in the “art-line” technique, which means the art of lines.
The visitors can also see the paintings from other projects of Sliepchenko: “Echoes of the Ancient Times of Ukraine,” “Rozhanitsa,” and “Melodies of the Old City.” We must add that the artist is a graduate of the Graphics Department of Ivan Fedorov Printing Institute in Lviv. Sliepchenko began his artistic career in Lviv with a solo exhibition in 1981. He works in the artistic trend of romantic symbolism. Sliepchenko participated in numerous exhibitions, including his solo exhibitions both in Ukraine and abroad. Paintings and drawings by Sliepchenko are stored in galleries and private collections in Ukraine and abroad. For the past fifteen years the artist hasn’t had a single exhibition in Lviv. The last exhibition of his works in this city was timed to the artist’s 50th anniversary.
BORYS VOZNYTSKY, RESCUED ANGEL, FROM THE “CHOSEN BY TIME” SERIES, 2012
Roman YATSIV, art historian, pro-rector of the Lviv Academy of Arts:
“Volodymyr Sliepchenko created the gallery of famous Ukrainians not by chance – he often turned to the images of either his friends or iconic figures, and, obviously, this defines his understanding of the role and place of a person in history and culture. He has a very specific motivation to this series – he wrote an essay on that we can often observe how our contemporaries do not pay much attention or unpretentious to knowledge regarding those or other prominent personalities from different historical periods. Very often names of secondary figures occupy the first place, while the strongest, most expressive figures are removed from the context. These are personal observations of Volodymyr Sliepchenko (he told me so) and it is indeed the way things are. I personally wrote and spoke about the same facts a lot: we are now witnessing marginalization of elite culture, when encyclopedias attach greater value to such figures as, for example, Madonna or Michael Jackson than, let’s say, Leonardo da Vinci and Socrates.
KING OF STAGE BOHDAN STUPKA, FROM THE “CHOSEN BY TIME” SERIES, 2013
“Sliepchenko saw something similar in the situation in Ukraine and wanted to once again remind people about the importance of certain names. He wants to show the hero of certain epoch through his attitude, through hyperbole, through strengthening of the image and by doing so he positions himself as a good citizen and an artist.”
Exhibition of art works by Volodymyr Sliepchenko, featuring sixty of his paintings, can be viewed at the Lviv Palace of Arts (17 Kopernika Street) until August 31.
