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“Petros”

“Petros” by Bohdan Korzh is a sculpture made of massive light stone. It has generalized, almost archaic features. The large size and horizontal position create a feeling of the presence of something timeless. In this image, one can recognize an allusion to classical ancient traditions – for example, an ancient Greek sculptural portrait, but interpreted through the prism of modern Ukrainian sculpture.

The name "Petros" (from the Greek for stone) enhances this effect: it is not just a portrait, but a metaphor for stability. In the name, Bohdan Korzh refers to Mount Petros, one of the highest peaks of the Ukrainian Carpathians. In this context, the sculpture becomes not only an image of a person, but also a personification of the mountain itself: silent, rooted in centuries, majestic and lonely.

Such symbolism is especially eloquent in the context of modern Ukrainian culture, where the Carpathians are not only geography, but also a spiritual support, a place of strength, legends and silence. The sculpture "Petros" in this sense is the embodiment of the invincibility of stone, natural grandeur and inner peace that is not subject to storms.

The plastic language of the sculpture is restrained, monolithic, with an emphasis on volume, rather than on fine detailing. The lines are soft but clear; the position of the head facing the sky carries an ambiguity. The image is full of peace and inner strength.

The sculpture seems to hint: even if the body falls, the head will remain – as knowledge, as thought, as spirit. And it is from this stone that something new will grow again.

In his interview, Bohdan Korzh says: "I don't like excesses. Every extra line takes away the truth. The stone itself tells what it wants to become." This attitude towards the material is almost dialogical. And this is exactly what is felt in "Petros": this is not just a work of a sculptor, it is a joint work of the artist and the stone.

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Bohdan Korzh

An artist who works at the intersection of plastic arts, symbolism, and personal philosophy. In 2008, Bohdan Korzh's sculptures were the first to adorn the territory of the Derenivska Kupil arboretum.

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Yegor

Ziggurat

A sculptor for whom an ancient image becomes a tool for understanding modern man

Birth and education

He was born in Dnipro into the family of a sculptor, which largely determined his professional path.
2003 — graduated from the Taras Shevchenko State Art Secondary School.
2009 - graduated from the National Academy of Fine Arts and Architecture with a degree in sculpture.
2012 — completed his assistantship-internship at NAOMA.
Later, he was engaged in teaching activities, in particular, he taught drawing and sculpture at the I. K. Karpenko-Kary Kyiv National University of Arts and Crafts.

Career and creative path

Yegor Zigura's professional path began early: as a teenager, he worked with his father, completing orders that combined craft and creativity.
After graduating from the academy, he chose the path of an independent artist.

Zigura is the author of numerous public sculptures installed in Ukraine, France, Australia and the USA. His works regularly participate in international exhibitions, art fairs and sculpture parks, shaping the presence of Ukrainian sculpture in a global context. His practice encompasses both easel and monumental sculpture, as well as installations and art objects.

Since 2012, he has been a member of the National Union of Artists of Ukraine.

Recognition and international activities

The artist's works have been presented on leading international platforms, including Phillips and Sotheby's auctions, as well as at art fairs and exhibitions in Europe, the USA, Asia, and Australia.
Among them: Spectrum Miami, Volta Basel, Tokyo International Art Fair, Sculpture by the Sea (Australia), Niwot Sculpture Park (USA) and others.

Notable works and public projects

Sculpture "Unity" (Dniprovska embankment, Kyiv)
Sculpture "Atlant" (Dnipro)
Installation "R/Evolution" (Dnipro)
Sculpture "Be brave" (Kyiv)
His works often exist in dialogue with space, emphasizing the interaction of man, environment, and time.

Art style and themes

Yegor Zigura works at the intersection of classical plastic tradition and contemporary art. His works clearly trace an appeal to ancient heritage, while these images are transformed, acquiring new meanings in the context of the present. The sculptor explores the themes of identity, globalization, consumerism, environmental threats and the fragility of civilization. Zigura combines traditional materials: bronze, stone with modern materials and polymer structures. An important component of his practice is the balance between form and idea. The sculptor insists on their inseparability: plastic does not illustrate the concept, but exists with it as a single whole.

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Peter

Antip

An artist of large scale and deep meaning

Birth and education

Petro Antip was born in 1959 in the city of Horlivka in the Donetsk region — in the very heart of the steppe Ukraine. In 1980–1984 he studied at the sculpture department of the Penza Art School named after K.A. Savitsky. Then he studied in the private studios of V. Tsoi and O. Bem (1982–1986).

Career and artistic path

1988 — member of the National Union of Artists of Ukraine.
2009 — Honored Artist of Ukraine.
Together with colleagues, he founded the art group "East" and the symposium "Ukrainian Steppe" in Horlivka - as a space for free Ukrainian art.
Before the full-scale war, he was one of the most famous artists in the region, founded his own monument-making plant, and had the largest art studio in Ukraine.
Since 2014, he has lived and worked in Kyiv, after being forced to move due to the war.

His works were purchased by the Ministry of Culture of Ukraine and are included in the collections of museums and galleries in France, Germany, Italy, and Sweden.

Outstanding works and projects

Petro Antip is the author and co-author of dozens of large-scale projects and monuments:

Monuments:

P. Gorlov (1999)
T. Shevchenko (Horlivka, Dobropillya, Pokrovsk)
M. Amosov (Fairytale Cemetery, Kyiv, 2003, co-authored)
M. Leontovych (Pokrovsk, 2018)
S. Rudansky (Kalynivka, 2014)
F. Yenakiyev (2010)

Winner of the tender for the reconstruction of Peace Square in Kramatorsk (2016) together with the Italian architect R. Boatelli.

Interesting facts

"Cosmogony" is a grandiose painting by Petro Antip, on which the artist worked for more than two years. The work covers an area of about 2,000 m² and consists of more than 500 fragments, forming the largest painting in the world. The creation of "Cosmogony" also became the longest continuous artistic
performance — over 3,000 hours of work, almost 3 tons of paint used. “Cosmogony” is not just a work of art, but a visual model of the Universe, written in the Ukrainian language of symbols.
In addition to fine art, Petro Antip is the author of the philosophical fairy tale "The Great Fairy Tale of the Little Boy," which was presented in Lutsk. In it, as in his visual work, the artist searches for the truth and meaning of existence — through myth, memory, and image.
Seven documentaries have been made about his life and work.

Art style and themes

Antipas' style is a philosophical poetry of form, where metal, color, and word become markers of historical memory. It is an epic of the steppe, filled with archaism and metaphors. His works are not just sculptures or paintings, but visual parables that ask the eternal questions: "Who are we?" and "Where are we going?"

Antip does not imitate the archaic — he rereads it, sometimes in a rigid, almost expressionistic form. His sculptures are usually vertical, massive, reminiscent of Scythian women, ancestral pillars, cult totems. In his painting, the forms are simplified, almost iconic.

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Alexander

Dry land

A leading artist of his generation

Birth and education

Born in 1960 in the village of Chornotychi, Chernihiv region.
He graduated from the Uzhhorod School of Decorative and Applied Arts (1979) and the Sculpture Department of the Kyiv State Art Institute (1986), where he studied in the workshop of Mykhailo Vronsky. Already on his diploma, his sculpture "Motherhood" was acquired by the National Art Museum of Ukraine.

Career and creative path

Since the 1980s, he has participated in state-level exhibitions, and since the 1990s, in author's and international projects. Member of the National Union of Artists of Ukraine.
He works in sculpture, graphics, painting, and installation. The artist's works are kept in the Chocolate House Art Center, the National Museum "Kyiv Art Gallery", the National Art Museum of Ukraine, the National Reserve "Sophia of Kyiv" in Kyiv, and many other museums in Ukraine and abroad.

Art style and themes

Oleksandr Sukholit is one of the few artists who has integrated sculpture, painting, and graphics into a single visual language. The artist has preserved in his work a connection with the land, nature, and traditional Ukrainian sensuality, combining it with European cultural heritage.

Alexander Sukholit's style was formed outside of temporary trends, and the imagery of his works is rooted in universal symbols, most often a female figure. In his sculptures, it is easy to recognize metaphors of waiting, prayer, and sorrow. The human figure here is not an individual portrait, but a carrier of universal human experience, through which the artist speaks about the main thing: about love, pain, presence, and memory.

Sukholit consciously avoids naturalism, not working with nature in the literal sense. For him, the body is not only a physical object, but above all a container for the spirit. His sculptures do not demonstrate muscles or anatomy, they capture a state - a state of concentration, search and silence.

Graphics occupy a special place in the artist's work. His drawings are made in ink, charcoal, and sometimes watercolors. They are simple in means, but profound in meaning. Often this
figures of women reduced to a sign, a line, a gesture. In these works there is meditation, intuition, a relaxed movement of the hand, which captures not the external, but the internal. Graphics for Sukholit is not an auxiliary tool, but a separate world in which he continues the same dialogue as in sculpture.

Despite recognition, exhibitions, and presence in museum collections, Sukholit does not seek publicity; one thing is important to him: honesty before form. His work is not a career, but a path. And this path is deeply spiritual.

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Alexander

Dyachenko

A sculptor for whom an archaic symbol becomes the key to understanding modernity

Birth and education

Born in 1956 in Kyiv. Graduated from the Lviv Institute of Decorative and Applied Arts in 1979 with a degree in design. His mentor was the prominent sculptor Emmanuel Mysko.

Career and creative path

He has been participating in exhibitions since 1980, and has been a member of the National Union of Artists of Ukraine since 1987. He works in Kyiv and actively exhibits in Ukraine and abroad. Dyachenko's works are included in the permanent exhibitions of 5 art museums in Ukraine.

Recognition and awards

Prize for sculpture at the International Renaissance Festival, Lviv, 1991
Prize for the work "The Return of the Prodigal Son" at the sculpture plein air, Lviv, 1992
Award for the project of the monument to the victims of the Holodomor, Washington, 2009
Honorable Mention for the exhibition at the Great Sculpture Salon, Kyiv, 2009

Outstanding works and public projects

Monument to Academician Mykola Amosov (2003, Kyiv, Baykove Cemetery, co-authored)
Fountain in the courtyard of the National Bank of Ukraine (1995, Kyiv)
Memorial to the victims of the Holocaust (1992, Kryve Ozero, Mykolaiv region)
Sculptural composition "Wall" (1990, Kharkiv)

Art style and themes

Oleksandr Dyachenko is a sculptor for whom art is not a reaction to the present, but a deep, lasting message in time. He does not accept negativity in sculpture, for him this
the art form has a different nature.

“Painting or graphics can scream, protest, criticize, but sculpture is silent, tactile, almost sacred. It needs to be touched – and therefore it must be a source of strength, not anxiety.”

He is attracted to man not as a portrait or an object, but as a part of nature. He is interested in how harmonious and organic this part is – both externally and internally. In all his works there is a respect for the human essence: for dignity and inner light.

Dyachenko says: “Art is the energy of the individual.” His sculptures truly convey inner energy, they pay attention to form, rhythm, and balance. He does not work with “current” art, because sculpture, according to him, takes too long to make and lasts too long. Its mission is not to be a reaction, but a foundation. In Alexander’s sculptures, echoes of archaic plastic art can be traced: Cimmerian, Scythian,
antique. Its forms are concise, balanced, devoid of ornamentation. They encourage concentrated, almost meditative contemplation.

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Mykola

Bilyk

A modern classic of Ukrainian sculpture

Birth and education

Mykola Bilyk was born in 1953 in the village of Toporivtsi.
in Bukovina.
In 1972, Mykola Bilyk graduated
Vyzhnytskyi School of Applied Arts.
In 1980 he graduated from the Lviv Institute of Applied and
decorative art.

Career and creative path

He began his creative path in the 1980s in the production association "Artist". He was admitted to the National Union of Artists of Ukraine in 1986. Since 1981 he has been actively participating in republican, all-Union and international exhibitions in Ukraine, Germany, France and the USA. The sculptor's personal exhibitions were held in Kyiv and Munich. Since 1994 he has been a professor at the Department of Sculpture of the Kyiv State Academy of Decorative and Applied Arts named after Mykhailo Boychuk.

Recognition and awards

Laureate of the Lviv-91 Biennial (award in the field of sculpture, 1991)
Honored Artist of Ukraine (1996)
Order of Nestor the Chronicler (2001)
Gratitude of the Kyiv Mayor "For significant personal contribution to the preservation, popularization, and protection of cultural heritage" (2002)
Order of Princess Olga, 1st degree (2009)
People's Artist of Ukraine (2017)

Outstanding works and projects

Sculptural group of Princess Olga with Cyril, Methodius and Andrew the First-Called in Kyiv (1995)
Monument to Yaroslav the Wise near the Golden Gates in Kyiv (1997)
Monument to Ivan Mazepa in Poltava (2016)
Memorial plaques to prominent figures of Ukrainian culture: Petro Mohyla, Oleksandr Oles, Borys Grinchenko, Lyubov Zabashta, and Mykhailo Boychuk

Art style and themes

Mykola Bilyk's works are the visual language of Ukrainian identity. At the center of Bilyk's work are people, nations, memory, as well as a deeply meaningful image of women, family, people, and nature as the foundations of existence. Mykola Bilyk is easily recognizable by his exquisite plastic language, harmony of form, and deep meaning. His works encourage not just to look, but to feel and remember.

Mykola Bilyk is a witness and creator of the era, whose works are kept in Ukrainian museums and private collections in France, the USA, Canada, Belgium, and Germany.

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Svetlana

Karunskaya

Sculpture for me is poetry in solid material.

Birth and education

Born in 1968 in Fastiv, Kyiv region, in the family of artist Mykhailo Karunsky. Since childhood, she was immersed in an atmosphere of creativity: there were always books about art in the house, which formed her first aesthetic impressions. She drew from an early age, but she got into sculpture by accident. At first, this choice was not conscious, but over time, this hobby turned into a real calling.

1986–1992 — studied at the Kyiv State Art Institute, Faculty of Sculpture, workshop of Professor Vasyl Boroday (a sculptor who immortalized his name in one of the largest monuments in Europe – “Motherland”).

1995–1999 — postgraduate studies at the Ukrainian Academy of Arts.

Career and creative path

Since 1987, she has been a regular participant in art exhibitions.

Since 1992, he has been a member of the National Union of Artists of Ukraine.

Her works have been exhibited in numerous exhibition spaces in Ukraine and abroad: in Kyiv, Lviv, Baden (Switzerland), Zurich, Vigo (Spain), as well as in Germany, the Czech Republic, Austria, the USA, and Mexico.

The artist creates chamber and monumental bronze compositions, and also experiments with new materials: papier-mâché, cardboard, mosaic, which expands the expressive possibilities of her plastic art. She pays special attention to the synthesis of sculpture with architectural and urban space.

Exhibition activities

Participant of numerous group and solo exhibitions, including:

"Golden Line" (Kyiv, 1987).
Biennale "Renaissance-91" (Lviv, 1991).
Triennial of Sculpture of the Union of Artists of Ukraine (1999, 2005, 2008, 2011, 2014, 2020).
Solo exhibitions in the galleries "Mykola's House", "Triptych", "Irena" (2004–2018).

Her works have been repeatedly exhibited at international art fairs in Zurich and Spain. Some of them are kept in private collections in Ukraine, Switzerland, the Czech Republic, Austria, the USA, Mexico and Germany.

Art style and themes

Svitlana Karunska is one of those artists who can do everything on her own. She is convinced that only someone who masters all stages of the craft can afford freedom in creativity.

"My father said: be able to do everything so that there is a chance to refuse it," says the artist.

Her self-discipline is combined with attentiveness to the world. She learns from people and situations, constantly observing how life suggests form. For her, creativity is a continuous dialogue between work and thought.

“The robots educate me, and I educate them,” Svitlana notes.

An important feature of the author's position is categoricality. Karunska rejects works that lack inner strength. Such self-demandingness becomes the principle of her artistic ethics.

In her sculptures, there is a desire for purity and clarity of form, for its constructive understanding. The artist consciously simplifies plasticity: in this structural concentration, a special inner energy of the image is born. Natural sincerity is just one of the many manifestations of the character of Svetlana's sculptural images. Her characters are sensitive, full of tenderness and a certain irony.

Her work reflects the intonations of the European plastic tradition, in particular the Italian masters of the 20th century. She is close to the laconicism of Arturo Martini, the simplicity of form and the inner irony of Marcello Mascherini. These features do not turn into imitation, but rather organically transform into a component of her personal aesthetics.

For Karunska, sculpture is poetry in solid material, a metaphor expressed through form. She believes that every detail, every stroke carries the energy of the artist. It is this energy that determines the value of the work.

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Yuri

Boyko

— a young voice in contemporary Ukrainian sculpture

Birth and education

Yuriy Boyko was born on August 21, 1998 in the city of Kalushi. His first attempts at modeling at school quickly turned into a passion, which determined his future path.
In 2014–2020, he studied at the Lviv College of Decorative and Applied Arts named after I. Trush, at the Department of Sculpture. It was his studies that became a turning point for him, where his childhood interest grew into a professional passion.
In 2020-2021, he completed his master's degree at the Lviv National Academy of Arts.
Career and creative path
2020 — laboratory assistant in the modeling department at the I. Trush College.
Yuriy has been a sculpture and modeling teacher at the same college since 2022. For him, teaching is not only a transfer of technical skills, but also a way to more deeply understand his own practice and constantly immerse himself in the subject.
In 2022–2023, he participated in two wood symposiums in the Kozatska Sloboda Rakovets space, where he gained experience working with large sizes and discovered new possibilities of the material.
Exhibition activities
2024 - participation in the international exhibition "Autumn Salon".
2025 — exhibition of a series of portraits at PARK3020. Participation in the PARK3020 Heritage Culture Forum 2025 project.
2025 — participation in the exhibition "Heaven-Hell" (ZAG gallery).

Art style and themes

In Yuriy's work, one of the central themes is the dialogue between material and form. He emphasizes that it is the material that dictates the form. Boyko works with different media and explores their synthesis, not prioritizing one. For him, the feeling of substance, its resistance and plastic potential are more important.
Among the significant influences on his formation, the artist mentions working with Petro Antip, during which he discovered the language of geometrized elements. His teacher Lubomyr Yaremchuk also played an important role, helping him understand plastic art as a living, structural language.
The artist finds inspiration in nature, fashion as a point of intersection of various artistic practices, as well as in archaic symbols, which are actively manifested in his plastic language. Many of his sculptures are characterized by deformations and shifted proportions - means through which the artist works with psychological expression and enhances the structural expressiveness of the image.
An important component of the creative process is sketching — a daily practice that allows you to keep your mind in constant motion and capture the impulses of your search. Currently, Yuriy Boyko continues to develop his own plastic language and is actively working on new series of works.