Mykhailo Deyak
Mykhailo Deyak represents the younger generation of contemporary Ukrainian artists. He works at the intersection of neo-expressionism and minimalism, experiments with materials by using glass and metal, and masterfully applies all painting techniques. Despite his passion to the fundamental and exact sciences, the artist largely relies on the subconsciousness, with his works noted for their emotional expressiveness.
Mykhailo Deyak was born in1984 in the village of Zolotaryovo of Khust region in Transcarpathia, Ukraine. Between 1999 and 2003, he studied at Uzhhorod Arts College named after A. Erdeli under guidance of V. Mykyta, the People’s Artist of Ukraine. In 2003, Mykhailo entered Kyiv National Academy of Fine Arts and Architecture, where he studied at professor V. Zabashta’s workshop of the landscape painting led by senior teacher I. Melnichuk.
Since 2010 Mykhailo Deyak has been exclusively working with Voloshyn Gallery (Mystetska Zbirka). The artist is intensively engaged in exhibition activities, and his works are sold at the auctions. In 2013, Mykhailo enjoyed the first international success, when his painting was in the top ten of the most valuable paintings of Ukrainian artists, that have been sold over a year in a public sale, according to Forbes. At the end of 2014, the painting from his series Klitschko Brothers Emotion was sold at Phillips auction for $11 800. In 2015, the painting made on the glass piece, one of his Stools series, was purchased at the mentioned auction for $16 000. This sale passed the top estimate and became the highest one Mykhailo has ever experienced at Phillips auction.
According to Art investment magazine, Mykhailo Deyak has become listed in the top-20 of young contemporary artists of the CIS, and ranks seventh in the list of the most prestigious artists of Ukraine, as Forbes puts it. In June 2016, Voloshyn gallery presented Ukraine during the international art-fair SCOPE Basel by Deyak’s individual exhibition.
Seven artist’s paintings were purchased by the Ministry of Culture of Ukraine, his works are also stored in the archives of the National Arts Museum of Ukraine. The artist’s works are a part of private collections in Ukraine, Canada, USA, Great Britain, France, Switzerland, Hungary and China.
Mykhailo Deyak lives and works in Kyiv.
Mariya Sulymenko
Mariya Sulymenko’s paintings are noted for both simplicity and laconicism, while also fascinating the viewers. Any movement appears to be frozen on the canvas. Although the characters’ figures look slightly shy, this delicacy only reveals the author’s monolithic personality. Artist apparently picks all the details in a fine and precise way, however a viewer will have the impression of an improvisation and spontaneity. The works’ characters are beyond any specific epoch, they are placed in the environment, which is only nominally and sometimes naively defined, with the images referring to the sphere of subconsciousness rather than to obvious things.
Mariya Sulymenko was born in 1981 in Kyiv, Ukraine, in the artists’ family. She graduated from the Arts school named after Taras Shevchenko. Thereafter she went on to get the higher education in Germany. Mariya entered the State Academy of Fine Arts in Stuttgart (Akademie der Bildenden Künste in Stuttgart), where she studied the sculpture and painting. Then she entered the Higher school of Fine Arts in the city of Offenbach (Hochschule für Gestaltung in Offenbach am Main), where she studied the graphic design. Her lecturers were prominent ATAK (Georg Barber) and Eike König. This was in Germany, where Mariya’s personal style has been developed. She creates large paintings on paper and canvas. Currently the artist lives and works in Fridingen an der Donau and Berlin.
