Igor Grechanyk
Igor Grechanyk was born in Kyiv, Ukraine. Raised in an artistic family, he has been passionate about art and drawing from early childhood. He attended the Republican Art School, graduating in 1978, and the State Art Institute in Kyiv, graduating in 1984.
Igor Grechanyk’s acclaimed sculptures have earned him an honored position as one of the world’s leading contemporary artists. Numerous international exhibitions of his works have met with tremendous success. His style is familiar in artistic circles; to collectors, curators, and art enthusiasts worldwide.
Grechanyk’s genius lies in his ability to give form to the abstruse. His works seek to map the collective unconscious, drawing inspiration from esoteric doctrines and ancient mythology. The artist brings forth inner, mystical elements of his creatures. His multifaceted images demonstrate a profound level of artistic skill.
Bronze creations of Igor Grechanyk – surreal and symbolic – transcend boundaries to channel unknown realms. Their gracefulness and force of inner energy is impressive. The powerful application of contrasting textures, symbolic imagery and intricate detail of each work conjure the existence of a hidden mystery, both within the universe and the individual. His body of work glides effortlessly from the real world into the world of imagination. Recent works include a portfolio of 2D digital art, often based on his sculpture images.
As a Dutch Art Historian, Poet and Curator Gerrit Ludinga described, in Igor’s sculptures “primeval power, beauty and elegance vie for priority…, the spiritual, immaterial expression takes precedence over and gloriously outshines the material reality of the sculpture”. “In fact, Igor Grechanyk’s sculptures may be seen as symbols of a spiritual entity. His art shows a strong affinity with Symbolism, which, as a reaction to the realism that dominated the arts around 1850, focused attention on the power of imagination, fantastic images and intuition”.
Igor Grechanyk is a member of the National Artists Union of Ukraine and the Society for Art of Imagination in London. He is a leader of the Creative Association, “The Golden Gate”, founded in 1997 in Kyiv. He is a distinguished foreign artist at the Yuehua Painting Academy, Guangzhou, China. His works are widely held in private and museum collections in Ukraine and throughout the world. He figures prominently in international catalogues of the world’s leading artists in contemporary imaginary art. He is the recipient of prestigious Ukrainian and international awards. He is the creator of a number of monumental public works. Currently, Igor Grechanyk resides and works in Kyiv, Ukraine.
Triptych of Presence
(The Artistic Philosophy of Igor Grechanyk)
Manifesto of Manifestation
Art is a way of making visible what exists before form.
Art does not record the world —
it reveals the process of its becoming.
Art is not reaction.
It is presence.
Its task is not to explain the world,
but to restore the human connection
with the invisible order of being.
The human being is capable of perceiving the energy of the world.
Art helps us remember this.
The artist does not impose form upon matter.
He listens.
He waits.
He allows it to be born.
Form emerges as if a thin fabric were cast
over an invisible volume:
contours appear,
yet the essence remains deeper
than the outer form.
The task of the artist is to make this inner essence visible.
Sculpture is not an image.
It is a structure of tension.
It is a place where the invisible becomes tangible.
The Cosmic Principle
Creativity is the heart of the Universe,
whose pulsation
generates rhythm, movement, and form.
Through creativity, the Universe unfolds itself.
Sculpture is born at the point of encounter
between cosmic rhythm
and the artist’s inner experience.
In the act of creation, the artist structures chaos,
forming a humanistic space for the future.
Beauty is the moment in which the Universe acquires meaning.
The Human Being in the Field of Time
Myth is not about the past.
It is a mode of existence for contemporary humanity
and a model of the future.
It is a structure of consciousness.
The path of self-knowledge resembles a labyrinth.
There are always those who dare to walk it.
Beauty is the moment of balance between chaos and harmony.
Art can stretch this moment into infinity.
Memory is an archive that opens only those images
that resonate with living time.
Victory is not the overcoming of another.
It is the alignment of inner forces.
The vertical unites earth and sky.
Emptiness allows energy to move.
A rupture opens space for the birth of the new.
Cosmic cycles are not abstractions —
they manifest in nature, history, human life,
and in the deep structures of consciousness.
The human being is not separate from this movement.
We are its resonator —
and its resonance.
Education
Republican Art School, Kyiv, Ukraine
Academy of Art, Kyiv, Ukraine, (formerly, State Art Institute) Master of Art, Sculpture
Recent Awards
August 2023 – Art Revolution Taipei Fair – award
July 2021 – London Art Biennale – award
November 2020 – Artist of the Future – Contemporary Art Curator Magazine Award
November 2020 – finalist of the International Global Art Awards contest
August 2020 – Triennale in Kyiv, Ukraine – award
September 2019 – International Sculpture Contest – Odessa Airport, Ukraine – award
April 2016 – Art Revolution Taipei Fair – International Artist Contest Award
September 2015 – Art Olympus national program award for significant contributions to Art and Culture, Kiev, Ukraine
November 2013 – nomination for the Person of the Year, Art and Culture Award, Ukraine
June 2011 – recipient of the coveted Flame of Peace, Cultural Ambassador for Peace Award. Bestowed by the Habsburg-Lothringen Imperial Family of Austria
Major Museum Collections
Ukrainian Museum, New York
National Art Museum of Ukraine, Kyiv
Ukrainian Institute of America, New York
Ministry of Culture of Ukraine, Kyiv
Academy of Art, Kyiv
Museum “Kyiv National Art Gallery”, Kyiv
Taras Shevchenko National Museum, Kyiv
National Literature Museum of Ukraine, Kyiv
Academy of Art, St. Petersburg
Holodomor Famine Museum in Kyiv – Memorial in Commemoration of Famines’ Victims in Ukraine, Kyiv, Ukraine
Private Collections
Australia, Austria, Azerbaijan, Belgium, Canada, China, Denmark, France, Germany, Great Britain, Israel, Monaco, the Netherlands, Poland, russia, Sweden, Switzerland, Taiwan, Ukraine, USA
Public Commissions
2018 – Prayer for Ukraine Sculpture (bronze, 2.5 meters high) – Presentation – Kiev – Government Quarter – Ukraine
2018 – Holodomor Victims Monument (Bronze, 6.5 meters high) – Uzhgorod, Ukraine
June 2016 – Official dedication of public monument to Ukrainian national poet, Taras Shevchenko (bronze, h – 4 m), by the President of Ukraine, Petro Poroshenko, and the President of Bulgaria, Rosen Plevneliev; Sofia, Bulgaria
November 2015 – Monument to Ukrainian national poet Taras Shevchenko (bronze, h – 3,5 m); Riga, Latvia. Official dedication hosted by the Prime Ministers of Ukraine and Latvia
April 2015 – Prince Frog sculpture (bronze, h – 157 cm), Zurich, Switzerland
March 2014 – Taras Shevchenko on the Barricades
On the 200th anniversary of Shevchenko the statue was installed on Khreschatyk Street, Kyiv, at the headquarters of the Revolution of Dignity (City Hall). The Poet’s words, which carry the spirit of freedom, inspire us!
The composition consists of real pieces of Kyiv’s barricades and the figure of Shevchenko in bronze. The total height is about three meters.
February 2014 – 6-meter-high sculpture composition, Guangzhou, China
November 2013 – sculpture dedicated to Ukrainian poet Taras Shevchenko, Institute for Slavic Studies, Vienna University, Vienna, Austria
November 2013 – Mournful Figure of a Woman, Days of Sorrow (gypsum, h – 170 cm), Holodomor Famine Museum in Kiev: Memorial in commemoration of famine victims in Ukraine; Kiev, Ukraine
April 2013 – Memorial stela to Mykola Berdyaev (Nicolas Berdiaev), eminent philosopher, (bronze, 155 x 125 cm), Kiev University
June 2012 – Monument to Ukrainian national poet Taras Shevchenko (bronze, h – 3,8 m), Khust, Ukraine
June 2010 – Memorial stela to Ukrainian warriors who perished in peacekeeping missions in Africa (bronze, h – 1,75 m)
December 2010 – Memorial stela to Ukrainian warriors who perished during the liberation of Pleven, Bulgaria
May 2009 – Sculpture of Mercury, Roman god of commerce. Commissioned by the Ukrainian Chamber of Commerce, (bronze, h – 3,5 m); Kiev, Ukraine
April 2009 – Memorial stela in honor of the first Ukrainian legation in Azerbaijan, 1919-1920. Dedicated by Ukrainian President Victor Yuschenko, and the President of Azerbaijan, Ilham Aliev – Baku, Azerbaijan
September 2008 – Memorial plaque to Artemiy Vedel, 18th century Ukrainian composer. Wall installation at Kiev’s oldest university and Vedel’s alma mater and workplace Kuiv-Mohyla Academy; Kiev, Ukraine
June 2008 – Monument to foremost Ukrainian poet, Taras Shevchenko. Dedicated by the President of Ukraine, Victor Yuschenko, and the President of Azerbaijan, Ilham Aliev; Baku, Azerbaijan
There are additional earlier public commissions.
ARTIST’S STATEMENT
“The life of an artist is a continual, creative search. Something surreal sends its signals and the artist, as receiver, transforms and retranslates these further. When you create a sculpture, an image comes first. It arrives from outside, from the cosmos, if you like. The light, non-material body is created on another level. And the artist perceives it as a diode receiver. At first, the image is not concrete, but indistinct. Gradually it becomes visible, its outline appears. Then it intensifies and is realized in this world.
“The process of this transition can take years. And it is very important not to be in a hurry, not to try to speed up the process, not to attract spirit and form by force. Everything must go naturally. And in the tensest moment you must let sculpture rest.
“The mission of an artist is to liberate the spiritual energy of a man. Man’s potential opens as a result of communication with art and artist. Being plunged into the world of art, the observer receives an opportunity to get in touch with the source of creativity itself, enriching him with a new spiritual experience. What an artist can give to this world is to disclose its diversity and multiformity. To show that the world is much greater than our notion about it. Contact with a new, unknown side of existence, inspires a new series of images.”
