Annual Holiday Art Exhibit and Sale

December 11, 2017 – February 1, 2018

Art at the Institute is pleased to present a group selling exhibition. Paintings selected for the exhibition feature works by Vasyl Bazhaj, Sergei Belik, Mykhailo Deyak, Oleh Denysenko, Roman Luchuk, Isaac Pailes, Temo Svirely, Max Vityk and works from the IconArt Gallery collection.

Vasyl Bazhaj, born in Lviv in 1950, defined his artistic style in the late 1980s when the reins of government censorship loosened and painting provided him a venue for a furious offensive against the system. He graduated from State Institute of Applied and Decorative Art. He is head of the Conceptual Art Department at the Lviv Union of Artists along with being a member of the board of the Lviv Union of Artists, both located in Lviv, Ukraine where he lives and works.

Sergei Belik, born in Odessa in 1953, Belik studied art at that city’s Grekov State Art College and the Petersburg Mukhina Higher Art Institute. He became a member of the Union of Artists of Ukraine in 1987. Since then his work has been widely exhibited throughout Europe and the U.S. Belik’s art can also be found in museums in a number of cities including the Sephardic Museum in Toledo, Spain.

Born in Lviv, Ukraine, Oleh Denysenko concentrated in graphics while studying at the National Academy of Printing (Lviv). He holds over thirty international honors for intaglio printmaking, including Grand Prize of the 9th Mondial Triennale for Small Prints (2014) in Chamalieres, France. He is an active member of the Union of Ukrainian Artists and is a full member of the Academic Senate of the International Academy of Modern Art (Rome). Mr. Denysenko lives and works in Lviv.

Roman Luchuk was born in Kosiv, Ivano-Frankivsk Oblast, in western Ukraine. He studied painting at the Kosiv College of Applied and Decorative Art and interior design at the Lviv National Academy of Art. His paintings have been included in numerous group and solo exhibitions throughout Ukraine. Mr. Luchuk lives and works in Kosiv, where he also teaches painting at the Kosiv regional branch of the Lviv National Academy of Art.

Isaac Pailes (1895-1978) was born in Kyiv, Ukraine and studied at the Academy of Fine Arts in Kyiv along with fellow Jewish artists Isaac Rybak and Max Kaganovitch. Arriving in Paris in 1913, Pailes would later become a highly visible and innovative member of the École de Paris school of painters. Isaac Païles lived and worked for most of his career in the Montparnasse section of Paris. He also was a collector of primitive art.

Temo Svirely (1964-2011), born in Zhinvali, Republic of Georgia. Graduated from the Zhinvali Art school, the Tbilisi Academy of Fine Arts (1998-1992). Temo is a member of the International Federation of Artist of Russia (from 1993). Member of the International Federation of Artist of Georgia (from 1998). Member of BGart (from 2000). Temo Svirely died in Kyiv.

The Iconart Gallery in Lviv, Ukraine, established in 2009, specializes in the contemporary artistic interpretation of spiritual topics, reconsidering this important issue in today’s cultural context. In the past five years, the gallery has developed a network of artists throughout Ukraine, with a substantial body of work. It is the only gallery of contemporary sacred art in Ukraine that focuses primarily on the spiritual, religious dimensions of contemporary art. Since its opening in 2010, the gallery has organized more than 60 exhibitions and events that were dedicated to the spiritual problems of modern Ukrainian culture, and have presented works by several generations of artists of various styles and techniques. All of these work are inspired by Christian culture and personal spiritual experience of the artists.

Born in Lviv, Ukraine, Max Vityk began painting in the late 1990s, after earning a doctorate in Earth Sciences. He has lived, worked and exhibited in the United States, Ukraine, and The Netherlands, and since 2015, lives and works in Cairo, Egypt. Mr. Vityk’s artworks can be found in private, corporate and institutional collections worldwide.