Ivan Marchuk. Interrupted Dialogue
To support the efforts of Ukrainian artists and galleries to maintain the continuity of the creative process in the conditions of war, from 26 January to 2 April 2023, the Art Museum RIGA BOURSE in Riga (Doma laukums 6) in collaboration with Galerie Les Noms presents the solo exhibition by Ukrainian artist Ivan Marchuk entitled Interrupted Dialogue.
The artworks of Ivan Marchuk (Іван Марчук) shown in this exhibition belong to private collection of Yuriy Gutsu (Юрій Гуцу), founder of the gallery Galerie Les Noms, and have never been exhibited in the Baltic States before. The curator of the project is a young Ukrainian artist and social activist Mariia Volina (Марія Воліна) who is the representative of the Galerie Les Noms in Latvia.
Ivan Marchuk has worked intensively to elaborate an individual pictorial manner, and eventually created his own art technique, which he calls pliontanism (from the Ukrainian пльонтати – to weave, knit). Instead of painting with the usual strokes, artist traces and weaves lace networks on canvas or cardboard. Marchuk does not recognize his style to belong to any sophisticated classification, because he has done works in nearly all genres imaginable: landscapes, portraits and something fairy-like. Author paints fantastic figural and floral compositions with elements of surrealism, but also hyperrealist portraits, enigmatic landscapes and abstract expressionist compositions.
About the artist
Ivan Marchuk (Іван Марчук) was born in 1936 in the Moskalivka village, Ternopil region, Ukraine. He studied at the Ivan Trush Lviv School of Applied Arts and the Lviv Institute of Applied Arts. In Soviet times, Ivan Marchuk was subjected to harassment and persecution by the State Security Committee (KGB). Until 1988 the Union of Artists of Ukraine did not officially admit Marchuk, but at the same time, he had more than 15 exhibitions in different cities of the former USSR. In 1989, Ivan Marchuk emigrated to Australia, then traveled to Canada and the USA. In 2001, after the 11 September terrorist attacks in New York, the painter came back to Ukraine. Artist has held over 150 personal and 50 collective exhibitions in Ukraine and abroad.
Ivan Marchuk is awarded the honorary title of National Artist of Ukraine. In 2006, the International Academy of Contemporary Art Golden Guild in Rome included Marchuk in its ranks and elected him as an honorary member of the Academic Council. Today, the Golden Guild consists of 51 artists from all over the world. This is the first time that a Ukrainian artist has been recognized by such a high-level institution.