Antonina Denisiuc
Artist, curator, author of paintings, and performances. Lives and works in between Lviv, Berlin, and Zurich.
She was born in 1963 in Lviv. In 1983, Antonina Denisiuc entered the Lviv State Institute of Applied and Decorative Arts, the Faculty of Interior Design and Equipment. Her teachers were: a well-known Lviv professor, a curator, and artman Yuriy Sokolov, an architect Myron Vendzylovych, Bohdan Kurlishchuk, Ihor Nabitovych, and others. Along with the architectural component, they all generated an environment of creativity and focused on the development of imagination and fantasy. She reminisces:
"We had a peculiar course, a peculiar graduation year in 1988 (entered in 1983). Everybody could relate to the stagnation of the Soviet space in the early 1980s. Lenins were no longer produced with much enthusiasm, the death of three secretaries-general added certain irony to life. Rejection of reality, building the castles in the air."
"Our department of interior design was sort of disengaged from others; there was a different spirit there. Whereas students of applied art faculties produced some tangible products, such as clothing, tapestries, ceramics, glassware, we were transforming everything into Andersen's fairy-tales, whether one liked it or not. Imagine if, or you could try that, — these were the common slogans of our studies. We had to engage our imagination all the time, to create things that are non-existent or unimaginable" (Denisiuc, "In Commemoration of Yuriy Sokolov…").
The artist's active creative life began in the early 1990s. In 1991, Denisiuc had her presentation at the first Biennale of Contemporary Art "Impreza" in Ivano-Frankivsk. As a young artist, Antonina was engaged into the organization of well-known pan-cultural projects in Lviv. In particular, she worked at the counter-cultural festival "Vyvykh" (literally, joint dislocation) in 1992. In 1994, Yuriy Sokolov invited her to participate in the exhibition "In Search for Temptation" displayed in the Decima Gallery (located in the building of the Museum of Furniture at the Rynok Square). "Sokolov was an essential witness of all my solo exhibitions in Lviv, and of all the symposia De Novo, in which I was the curator" (Denisiuc, "In Commemoration of Yuriy Sokolov…").
At the same time, Denisiuc started creating a series of drawings on paper "Uninterrupted Row" (1991-1998), using drawing ink, drafting pen, and a ruling pen. Some pieces from this collection are held in the Albertina Museum collection in Vienna. According to the artist, "…the pieces started selling like hotcakes." Then, she was invited to participate in the exhibition "Across the Boundaries and Borders" in Gmunden (Austria). Her early exhibitions included the art projects in Austria: "Grenzgänger" and "Augenblick", created with the support of the art patron Claus Hipp. His private collection still includes some of these works. Moreover, she had exhibitions in the Academy of Fine Arts. Some of her works landed in the collection of a Contemporary Art Museum Lentos in Linz, and others. Therefore, she had a chance to enter the international art market. In the 1990s, Antonina Denisiuc organized several International Art Symposia De Novo (Horishniy, "De Novo in Black," Postup).
Denisiuc participated in over 100 art projects and held 18 solo exhibitions. Throughout her creative activities, Antonina Denisiuc became one of the leading artists of her generation. Today (2019), the artist has a studio in Berlin, the city where she lives and works, even though she does identify herself as a Lviv artist. Her art dealer is her daughter, Hanna Humeniuk.
"Her works challenge our awareness and convictions about borders that divide the desire and the fear, the life and death, the reason and faith, love and hate; but they offer a ray of hope that all will be all right" (Trotsiuk, "Collaboration of an Artist and an Art Dealer").
The creative effort of Antonina Denisiuc found recognition with International Awards and scholarships of The Pollock-Krasner Foundation (USA), Kultur-Kontakt (Austria), Gaude Polonia (Poland, Ministry for Culture), Austrian Bureau for Cooperation, Erzdiozese (Austria), Villa Decius (Poland), Adam Mickiewicz Institute (Poland) a.o. In 2011, she was awarded a special Lorenzo de Medici Award at the VIII Florence Biennial of Contemporary Art. She participated in the Art Genoa 2012 and the Art Monaco Salon of Contemporary Art 2012, Hemliuk Salon 2013 under the patronage of Prince Albert II, Hidden Treasure London 2014, and many others.
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Works and Projects
1991-1998 — drawings "Infinite Series"
Watercolor Abstract series:
1995 — Floating Brevity
1995 — Interrupted Brevity
1996 — Cici
1996 — Violet Chariot
1998 — World Atlas
2000 — Blue
2001 — American Carpet
2004 — He and She
2015 — Vinyl Drawing Matrix/ Infinity series:
1993 — H-Space 1
1993 — Next Frame
2008 — Vorsicht Bemahlt
2008 — Red Sea
2014 — Pulse of the City
2018 — H-Space
2018 — Displacement
Drawings Gold/Black series:
1995 — Divina Proportione
1995 — Mirrors
2005 — Slovo
2014 — Leben
2014 — Life
Limited Edition Prints series:
2015 — Thousand of Talks, Infinity Series (black /silver)
2015 — Thousand of Talks, Infinity Series (white /silver)
2015 — Thousand of Talks, Infinity Series (black /gold)
2015 — Thousand of Talks, Infinity Series (black /gold/silver) Born In The Ocean.
Grey series (alabaster paintings):
2016 — Grey 1
2016 — Grey 2
2016 — Grey 3
2016 — Grey 4
2016 — Grey 5 Born
In The Ocean series (alabaster paintings):
2016 — Blue Stripe
2016 — Weather Is Unstable Vol. 0/1
2017 — Acting of the Industrial Reality
2017 — Invasion of the Simplicity / Vol. Black
2017 — Invasion of the Simplicity / Vol. Red
Born In The Ocean series (glass structure paintings):
2017 — Blue Influence
2017 — Gold Influence
2017 — Red Influence
2018 — Gold Green Influence
Born In The Ocean. Nautilus series (glass structure paintings):
2017 — Star
2018 — Purple Influence Vol.1
2018 — Blue Influence
2018 — Green
2019 — Purple Influence Vol.2
2019 — Gold Influence
Life as Air series (feather objects):
2018 — Lifelike Air / White Influence 1
2018 — Lifelike Air / White Influence 2
2018 — Lifelike Air / White Influence 3
2019 — Frame / Life as Air
2019 — The Mushrooms Follow / Life as Air
2019 — Ash of the Day / Life as Air
2019 — You Are Too Much Pink – More Black Please! / Life as Air
2019 — Too Many of You!!! / Life as Air
2019 — Water Lilies in Fur Monet See / Life as Air
2019 — Soft Wall of the Monet Rouen Cathedral / Life as Air
2019 — What it is? / Life as Air
Book Graphics:
Ігор Калинець, П'ять Казок, (Львів, Видавництво "Просвіта", 1994)
Богдан Чепурко, Марія Чумарна, Абетка, (Львів: Видавництво "Просвіта", 1997)
Каталог Міжнародного Мистецького Симпозіуму De Novo, Час, простір матеріал, 1998
Каталог Міжнародного Мистецького Симпозіуму De Novo, Індустріальна реальність, 1999
24 Години. Україна, Каталог Проекту, Центр Сучасного Мистецтва, Уяздовський замок, Варшава, 2007
Janineum, Jubilaumsschrift 1957-2007, (Wien, Janineum: 2008)
Concepts, Projects, Sets:
Group Exhibitions:1992 — Chrysler Imperial rock opera at the Lviv State Opera and Ballet Theater by Bu-Ba-Bu, part of the Vyvykh ("Dislocation") Festival: she designed 200 costumes;
1992 — Vyvykh festival, designed 2 posters;
1993 — Svoboda Vyboru ("Freedom of Choice"), scenography, (Kyiv-Donetsk);
1994 — Viruyu ("Statement of Faith") at the Lviv National Opera and Ballet Theater;
1995 — Dzvinkyi Viter ("Wind Bells") with Ruslana, Ukrainian pop singer, Lviv;
1996 — Visla 50 at the Festival of Ukrainian Culture in Przemysl, Poland.
1981 — Exhibition of graphics, in the exposition hall of the Lviv Branch of the Ukrainian Union of Artists (pl. Mitskevycha, 9, the building no longer exists);
1988 — Youth exhibition, in the exposition hall of the Lviv Picture Gallery (pl. Mytna, 2);
1991 — Impreza Biennale of Contemporary Art (Ivano-Frankivsk);
1993 — Lviv Cultural Scene, University of Freiburg
1993 — In Search of Capricious Temptations, Decima Gallery, (Lviv);
1991-1994 — Exhibition of the Skifska Baba art group from Kherson, Lviv Art Gallery;
1994 — In Search of Temptation, Decima Gallery;
1994 — Accross the Boundaries and Borders, Hipp-Halle, (Gmunden, Austria);
1997 — Exhibition at the Konvent der Minoriten - Minoritensale Cultural Center (Graz, Austria);
1999 — Dialog, BWA Galeria Wroclaw (Poland);
2000-2001 — Art Project Crossing Point (Lodz-Stuttgart-Lviv);
2002-2003 — Between Space, Besancon-Lviv-Freiburg (France-Ukraine-Germany);
2003 — donumenta (Regensburg, Germany);
2004 — Sonechko (lit. "little sun"), Guelman Gallery in Kyiv, (curator and participant of the project)
2004 — Cultural Hero Festival (Lviv);
2011 — Florence Biennale;
2012 — Art Genoa;
2012 — Art Monaco;
2013 — Hemliuk, exhibition under patronage of the Prince of Monaco Albert II (Monte Carlo);
2015 — Exhibition 100+1, Gary Bowman Art Gallery (Lviv);
2019 — bonum et malum, Kleiner Von Wiese Gallery (Berlin).
Curatorial Projects:
1998 — Time. Space. Material, International Art Symposium De Novo, Pidhirtsi Castle, Lviv Oblast;
1999 — Industrial Reality, реальність, International Art Symposium De Novo, Lviv Art Gallery;
2000 — Poet, International Art Symposium De Novo, Odesa;
2000 — Black Forest – Black See, International Art Symposium De Novo, Lviv-Odesa;
2002 — Museum of the History of One Person. The Inner Side of the Sky is Earth, International Art Symposium De Novo, Ethnography, Arts and Crafts Museum in Lviv;
2003 — Ars danubiana at the donumenta festival, Regensburg;
2005 — 24 hours.UA at the International Art Symposium De Novo, Centrum sztuki wspolczesnej Zamek Ujazdowski, Warsaw.
Sources
1. Halyna Tereshchuk, "Lviv Artist Became a Laureate of the Florence Biennale", Radio Free Europe, 2011 (Галина Терещук, "Львівська художниця стала лауреатом Флорентійського бієнале", Радіо Свобода, 2011) [accessed 10.11.2020]
2. Antonina Denisiuc, "In Commemoration of Yuriy Sokolov", prostory, 2018 (Антоніна Денисюк, "Пам'яті Юрія Соколова", prostory, 2018) [accessed 10.11.2020]
3. Marko Horishniy, "De Novo in Black. Symposium", Postup, 2001 (Марко Горішній, "Де Ново" по-чорному. Симпозіум, Поступ, 2001) [accessed 10.11.2020]
4. "Industrial Reality" as Reality of Freedom, Postup, 2000 ("'Індустріальна реальність' — реальність свободи", Поступ, 2000) [accessed 10.11.2020]
5. Marta Trotsyuk, "Collaboration of an Artist and an Art Dealer", Gallery 101, 2019 (Марта Троцюк, "Колаборація митець та арт-дилер", Gallery 101, 2019) [accessed 10.11.2020]
By Anastasiia Marusiy
Edited by Bohdan Shumylovych and
Olha Zarechnyuk
Created with the support of the Ukrainian Cultural Foundation
