Sergei Sviatchenko

Last updated
Sergei Sviatchenko
Sergei Sviatchenko 2021.jpg
Sergei Sviatchenko
Born1952 (age 70–71)
Ukraine
NationalityDanish
EducationKharkov National University of Construction and Architecture Ph.D. from Kiev University of Construction and Architecture
Occupation(s)Visual artist of Conceptuel Art, Collage, Painting
HonorsHonorary Member and Professor of the Ukrainian Academy of Architecture Foreign academician of the National Academy of Arts of Ukraine, 2023
Website sviatchenko.dk
Work on display at the Museum of Contemporary Art in Belgrade The site-specific installation is designed to transform the perception of a space by using of large-scale prints from series LESS, Museum for contemporary art, Belgrade.jpg
Work on display at the Museum of Contemporary Art in Belgrade

Sergei Sviatchenko (born 1952) is a Danish - Ukrainian architect, artist, photographer and curator. He is a representative of the Ukrainian New WaveUkrainian_New_Wave, that arose in Ukraine up through the 1980s. [1] Initiator and creative director of the Less Festival of Collage, [2] Viborg and Just A Few Works.https://www.justafewworks.com/ [3] He has lived in Denmark since the 1990s. Sviatchenko graduated from Kharkov National University of Construction and Architecture in 1975, and in 1986 he studied a Ph.D. at the National Academy of Visual Arts and Architecture. Sviatchenko is the son of architect Evgenij Sviatchenko (1924-2004), who was professor of architecture and a member of the National Ukrainian Academy of Fine Arts and Architecture, and engineer Ninel Sviatchenko (1926-2000). In 1975 Sergei Sviatchenko completed his architectural studies at Kharkov National University of Construction and Architecture. Sergei Sviatchenko is especially oriented towards architecture's modern expressions, [4] among these are Constructivism and the contemporary European Bauhaus movement. From his teacher, Professor Viktor Antonov, Sviatchenko was introduced to the film director Andrei Tarkovsky, [5] [ circular reference ] and particularly his film Mirror from 1975 [6] has left a thematic footprint in Sviatchenko's more recent collage art. [7] After having worked as an architect for a number of architectural firms in Kharkov until 1983, Sviatchenko moved to Kyiv, where he successfully graduated the master's program at Kyiv National University of Construction and Architecture|Kiev National University of Construction and Architecture, having completed his Ph.D. dissertation "Means to Visual Information in Architecture". In the 1980s he was one of the founders of the Soviart Center for Contemporary Art (Soviart) in Kiev and co-organizer and curator of the first Ukrainian exhibitions of contemporary art ”Kiev-Tallinn” at Igor Sikorsky Kyiv Polytechnic Institute|Kiev Polytechnic Institute(1987), ”Kiev-Kaunas” (1988), the first joint exhibition by Soviet and American artists (1988) and curated the first Ukrainian exhibitions in Denmark: ”21 perceptions. Young Contemporary Ukrainian Artists” (1989), ”Ukrainian Art 1960-80” (1990), ”7 + 7” which was the first joint exhibition by Soviet and Danish artists (1990) and ”Flash. A New Generation of Ukrainian Art” (1990). [8] At the end of 1990 Sviatchenko moved to Denmark with his wife Helena Sviatchenko having been awarded an art scholarship. In the same year he began to participate in solo and group exhibitions.

Contents

Career

From 1975 to 1983, Sviatchenko worked as an architect for a number of architectural firms in Kharkov. From 1983 to 1986, he studied and graduated with a master's degree from Kyiv National University of Construction and Architecture, having completed his Ph.D. dissertation ”Means to Visual Information in Architecture”. In 1986 Sviatchenko was invited to work as art editor for the youth magazine ”Ranok” (”Morning”) in Kiev. At the same time he became one of the founders of the Soviet Union's first center for contemporary art ”Soviart” in Kyiv and the center's first art director and curator. In the latter half of the 1980s emerged ”the Ukrainian New Wave” – a movement in Ukrainian visual art whose members rejected the restrictions of censorship, created new aesthetic principles with their creativity and insisted on the right to their own choice of artistic method. Sergei Sviatchenko was one of the participants in this perestroika-created movement in Kyiv. [9] Sviatchenko has made a number of monumental art works, among others in Nokia's headquarters in Copenhagen (now Aalborg University Copenhagen|Aalborg University), at the educational institution Tradium in Randers, in Jyske Bank's headquarters in Silkeborg, Holstebro Sygehus (hospital), Skjern kirke (church), Poul Due Jensen Akademi (Grundfos), at Nykredit and Kraftvarmeværket (CHP plant), Viborg, Denmark and FC Midtjylland (Dream99). A member of Billedkunstnernes Forbund (BKF) (Union of Visual Artists) and National Union of Architects of Ukraine. In 2007 Sergei Sviatchenko was awarded the International Yellow Pencil Award/London,(D&AD)https://advisory.artcult.org.ua/naau-auction/sergei-sviatchenko-auction. Honorary Member and Professor of the Ukrainian Academy of Architecture, 2022. Foreign academician of the National Academy of Arts of Ukraine, 2023. IPA2023 Honorable Mentioned in the categorie Fien Art Collage.

Senko Studios

Senko Studio Senko Studio.jpg
Senko Studio

In the beginning of the millennium Sviatchenko opened a non-profit exhibition studio Senko-Studio [10] in Viborg. The name of the studio is made up of the first two and last three letters of his first and last names Sergei Sviatchenko. Internationally recognized artists from several different countries participated in the studio's exhibitions. For a number of years the studio became a place of experimentation for young artists who worked in various media, while already recognized designers could exhibit their works which were specifically created for display in Senko Studio. Over seven years, Senko Studio hosted 72 exhibitions of contemporary art. [11]

Collage

Collage is found in Sviatchenko's work already in the beginning of the 1980s. In Sviatchenko's collages, a dialogue takes place between the material and the immaterial, between the realistic and the surrealistic. His collages comprise a kind of fusion of the recognizable and the unconscious, specific and symbolic, the detailed and the spontaneous. Two art movements are present in Sviatchenko's collages, of which one is anchored in Constructivism (art) and the other in Surrealism. Sergei Sviatchenko's collages are created among other under the influence of the classical representatives of the historical Ukrainian avant-garde|avant-garde Alexander Rodchenko [12] [ circular reference ](1891-1956), El Lissitzky [13] [ circular reference ](1890-1941), Kazimir Malevich [14] [ circular reference ](1978-1935) and Gustav Klutsis [15] [ circular reference ](1895-1938. [16] Inspired by the avant-garde of constructivism and the Bauhaus school movement, a connection between architecture, photomontage, scenography, decoration, design solutions and clothing style is created in Sviatchenko's artistic expression. Besides, the inspiration from Cubism, Dadaism and Surrealism is a characteristic feature in Sviatchenko's collages. [17] The method in Sviatchenko's collages is often based on a vertical-horizontal structure which can likewise be found in many of his paintings and photographs. His compositions are often created with a minimum of elements such as fragments of human figures, buildings or recognizable

From the series "Less" )2009) Less Collage.jpg
From the series "Less" )2009)

objects which are combined by the artist into a new sculptural form.

In Sviatchenko's work as a whole but primarily in his collages, the inspiration from the cult film ”Mirror" (1975) plays a central role. The film's poetic aesthetics, its artistic language and symbolism and its figurative execution of time and space became a model for Sviatchenko's artistic creativity. A number of works of art by Sviatchenko are dedicated to the film ”Mirror”. The collages created in the ”Mirror”-series are made on the basis of film strips from the original film. [18] In collaboration with the Japanese artist Noriko OKAKU, [19] Sergei Sviatchenko created the short film ”Mirror to Mirror” which is dedicated to the film ”Mirror”. The film won first prize at the international festival in Lucca (Italy) in 2015. Collages by Sviatchenko have been displayed at exhibitions in Denmark, Germany, Italy, Austria, France, England, Canada, and the United States and published in magazines such as Dazed & Confused, AnOther, Kilimanjaro, Varoom, Elephant, Rojo, Viewpoint, Blueprint, DAMn, Euroman, LOFFICIEL, Stiletto, Arena, Neon, Free & Easy and many others.https://archive.sviatchenko.dk/publications

Less Collage

The concept Less-collage emerged in the 2000s as a trend within modern conceptual collage and was introduced for the first time by Sergei Sviatchenko in 2004. Less-collage arose as a reaction to many fragmented, ”congested” compositions in classical and modern collages. What is unique about Sviatchenko's Less-collages and characteristic of his imagery are firstly the distinct cut in selected images and secondly the number of elements in the collage which deliberately is minimized to two or three at the mosthttps://designobserver.com/feature/collage-now-part-1-sergei-sviatchenko/38052. Unusually light colour backgrounds (few selected colours) highlight the motives and make them visually more convex, giving the otherwise flat images a sharper edged dimension. A further characteristic of the Less-collage is the absence of a precise geography and history. The elements have been torn out of their original reality and historical context and create instead a new room of interpretation in which the viewer can reflect. [20]

Painting

Sviatchenko's earliest image ideas were stylistically formed in his paintings at the end of 1990. The original idea was carried out in a number of paintings first displayed at the exhibition ”Ukrainian Art 1960-80s” which opened in Kiev in 1990 and then in Fyns Kunstmuseum in Odense. The principal artwork from this series was called ”Joy Beyond the Mountains” (1989), which was inspired by the painters from the so-called Peredvizhniki cooperative (”The Wanderers” 1870–1923). In the 1990s Sviatchenko continued working in this style after having settled down in Denmark. In the earliest artworks, the paintings in this series also included short texts as well as heraldic symbols and ornaments. Sviatchenko showcased this early series in full at FIAC – The international contemporary art fair in Paris in 1994 and at Galleri NORD (Randers, Denmark). The style mostly associated with Sviatchenko is especially characterized by an abstract expressionism with markings of landscape motifs applied with a significant palette and often with an atmosphere of contemplative repose pointing to the artist's preoccupation with the catharsis-theme. [21] Moreover, lines and sketchings of architectural figures are an element of many paintings, and in recent years Sviatchenko has experimented by including features from collage in characteristic mixed media. His paintings have recently become more expressive and wild and thus more spontaneous like the collages. This is especially evident in the paintings from the series "The First Snow in Bauhaus" (2020) and "All This and more" (2022).

Close Up And Private

From CUAP Close Up And Private.jpg
From CUAP

In 2009, Sviatchenko together with his youngest son Erik Sviatchenko began work on the project Close Up And Private (CUAP). [22] The website started as an artistic photo project centered around the details in a man's wardrobe, his private/personal expression and style. ”Close Up And Private” brings fashion photography into an artistic frame towards a more abstract understanding that views style and fashion as elements in a new aesthetic. [23] In 2010, Sviatchenko using the pseudonym Sergey Nielsen created an image version of Close Up And Private, in 2011 a collage version ”Less CUAP”. Close Up And Private has collaborated with brands such as Costume National, Gant Rugger, Dickies, Mismo, Jack & Jones by Premium [10], Harris Tweed, AN IVY, S.T. VALENTIN and others who create new artistic interpretations and designs. According to an opinion poll conducted by the magazine EUROMAN [26], Sviatchenko has several times been voted ”best-dressed man in Denmark” in 2010, 2014 and 2019.

Exhibitions

Selected solo exhibitions

Group exhibitions

External references

Further reading

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Arken Museum of Modern Art</span> Art museum in Ishøj, Denmark

ARKEN Museum of Modern Art is a state-authorised private non-profit charity and contemporary art museum in Ishøj, near Copenhagen. The museum is among Denmark's major contemporary and modern art collections, holding a variety of international cultural works and exhibitions. The museum was designed by Søren Robert Lund and was authorised by Copenhagen County. It was inaugurated on 15 March 1996 and was conceived by Queen Margrethe.

Adam Saks is a Danish painter who lives and works in Berlin.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">National Art Museum of Ukraine</span> Art museum in Kyiv, Ukraine

Erik Sergiyovych Sviatchenko is a Danish footballer who plays as a centre-back for MLS side Houston Dynamo.

Arsen Savadov is a Ukrainian conceptualist photographer and painter of Armenian descent. Participant of the Ukrainian New Wave.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Oleh Tistol</span>

Oleh Mykhaylovych Tistol is a Ukrainian artist, a representative of Ukrainian neo-baroque and one of the leaders of the Ukrainian New Wave.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Boris Hoppek</span>

Boris Hoppek is a German contemporary artist based in Barcelona. His artistic roots lie in graffiti, but today his work spans painting, photography, video, sculpture and installation art. His work has been used in advertising campaigns as well.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Frans Kannik</span>

Frans Kannik was educated in Serigraph in 1968. He also studied calligraphy in Oslo between 1971 and 1974. As an artist, he was generally self-educated. He was a multifaceted artist that expressed in a wide range of paintings, graphics, installation art, performance arts and sculptures.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Olena Golub</span> Ukrainian contemporary artist (born 1951)

Olena Golub or Holub is a Ukrainian contemporary artist, media artist, digital artist, collage artist, painter, art historian, representative of Ukrainian New Wave, member of the National Union of Artists of Ukraine ,Hungarian Electrographic Art Association. Her works have been exhibited internationally, including Germany, Netherlands, Belgium South Korea, Poland, and Austria. Museums with her art works include the National Art Museum of Ukraine, and Museum of Pannonhalma Archabbey, Hungary.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mall Nukke</span> Estonian artist

Mall Nukke is an Estonian artist. A printmaker by training, she is primarily known for her paintings, collages and installations influenced by pop art. Mall Nukke emerged on the Estonian art scene in the early 1990s, her work at the period can be seen as commentary of nascent mass culture and consumer society in newly independent Estonia. Her early collages combined various cultural references and created new media characters based on real entertainers and public figures. Since the 2000s, Mall Nukke has concentrated on creating photo-manipulations and mixed media paintings inspired by Eastern Orthodox icon art.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Serhii Brylov</span> Ukrainian artist (born 1974)

Brylov Serhii Volodymyrovych is a Ukrainian sculptor.

Anatoliy Volodymyrovych Dymchuk is a Ukrainian cultural figure, collector, gallery owner, founder of Dymchuk Art Promotion, founder and owner of NT-Art Gallery (Odesa), as well as Dymchuk Gallery (Kyiv). He is also the co-founder of the Foundation named after Yuriy Yegorov and Commander of the Public Order of Merit of the 3d degree.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Victor Deysun</span> Ukrainian abstract expressionist painter

Victor Mykolayovych Deysun is a Ukrainian abstract expressionist painter.

Vasiliy Ryabchenko is a Ukrainian painter, photographer, and installation artist. One of the key artists in contemporary Ukrainian art, and the "New Ukrainian Wave".

Fariba Hajamadi is an Iranian American artist whose work employs photography and painting on fabric, canvas, and wood panels, often presented as large scale installations. Her work investigates cultural and gender Identity, as well as narratives of displacement. A pioneer in the exploration of the representation of the “other”, Hajamadi dissects the cultural institution from the point of view of the cultural outsider both as a woman and as someone born in a non-Western culture.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Andreas Emenius</span> Swedish multi-disciplinary artist

Andreas Emenius is a Swedish cross-disciplinary artist known for installation, painting, and performance, based in Copenhagen. Emenius has shown work in multiple global biennales as well as museums, and is currently the curator and co founder of the Nordic Contemporary, a gallery for contemporary art featuring Scandinavian artists, in Paris, France. Emenius works additionally as a film director and is a contributor for SHOWstudio, a fashion and film platform founded by British photographer Nick Knight. Emenius teaches occasionally as a visual arts professor at The Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts, and is currently represented by Shin Gallery In New York. Emenius is the husband of prominent New York fashion designer Elena Velez with whom he shares two children.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Glib Viches</span> French and Ukrainian artist

Hlib Vysheslavskyi — is a Ukrainian artist; art historian, he holds a PhD in art theory and history (2014), and is a member of the International Union of Artists «Sztuka bez Granic» (Kraków) and the National Union of Artists of Ukraine. He is an author of art in painting, graphics, photo, video, installation and scientific research of contemporary art. Representative of Ukrainian New Wave.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Hesselholdt & Mejlvang</span> Visual artist duo

Sofie Hesselholdt and Vibeke Mejlvang are a collaborative duo of visual artists who live and work in Copenhagen. They started collaborating in late 1999 and work with performance art and site-specific installations in public spaces addressing social and political topics such as National Identity and Eurocentrism.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Vlodko Kaufman</span> Ukrainian painter

Vlodko (Vladimir) Kaufman is a Ukrainian artist of German descent, painter, graphic artist, performer, author of many art projects, and participant in solo and group exhibitions.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ukrainian New Wave</span>

Ukrainian New Wave — a set of creative directions that arose in Ukraine in the period from the late 1980s to the early 2000s in reaction to turbulent socio-political events of that time such as collapse of the USSR, perestroika, Declaration of Independence of Ukraine. It is one of the most influential manifestation of Ukrainian postmodernism, which is characterized by a variety of works and groups of both destructive and constructive nature, aimed at both strengthening the features of fine arts and moving away from it towards actionism and replacing traditional art with the latest technologies. Bright polystylistism Ukrainian New Wave originated in the previous period Ukrainian underground art, which arose spontaneously, without censorship and ideological restrictions.

References

  1. ↑ Silke Krohn: "Everything Goes Right & Left if You Want It: The Art of Sergei Sviatchenko", 2012
  2. ↑ https://lessfestivalofcollage.com/
  3. ↑ Faye Dowling: Less Festival of Contemporary Collage",19/9 2020
  4. ↑ Robert Klanten (red): "The age of collage vol. 3", gestalten 2020 Rick Poynor: "Sergei Sviatchenko: Collages", Schlebrueger.editor, Vienna, 2014
  5. ↑ "Andrej Tarkovskij".
  6. ↑ 2018 Jørn Jacobsen, Sergei Sviatchenko: I am collage, Lindhardt & Ringhof, Copenhagen, chap.6
  7. ↑ Sergei Sviatchenko — You", Helena Nyborg Bay, Viborg Kunsthal, 2017 Rick Poynor: "Sergei Sviatchenko: Collages" Schlebrueger.editor, Vienna, 2014 Silke Krohn: "Everything Goes Right & Left if You Want It: The Art of Sergei Sviatchenko", 2012.
  8. ↑ Silke Krohn: "Artist and Architect" - Paintins", gestalten, preface "Everything goes right & left it you want it", 2012 Tatiana Kochubinska (red): "The ParCommune. Place. Community. Phenomenon". Kyiv, Publish Pro, 2019 s. 172-175. 2018 Jørn Jacobsen: "Sergei Sviatchenko, I am collage" Lindhardt & Ringhof, København, 2018 s. 221
  9. ↑ Silke Krohn: "Artist and Architect" - Paintins", gestalten, 2012
  10. ↑ "Danish Collages in Senko Studio". 30 January 2008.
  11. ↑ Silke Krohn: "Everything Goes Right & Left if You Want It: The Art of Sergei Sviatchenko" - read "Artist and Architect", 2012
  12. ↑ "Alexander Rodchenko".
  13. ↑ "El Lissitzky".
  14. ↑ "Kazimir Malevich".
  15. ↑ "Gustav Klutsis".
  16. ↑ 2018 Jørn Jacobsen, Sergei Sviatchenko: I am collage, Lindhardt & Ringhof, Copenhagen, chap. 7, p.154
  17. ↑ Rick Poynor: "Sergei Sviatchenko - Collages", Schlebrügge.Editor, 2014.
  18. ↑ Rick Poynor: "Sergei Sviatchenko - Collages", Schlebrügge.Editor, 2014
  19. ↑ https://www.norikookaku.com/
  20. ↑ "A cut above: Inside the spirited collage worlds of Sergei Sviatchenko".
  21. ↑ Jørn Jacobsen: "Sergei Sviatchenko, I am collage" chap. 6 Lindhardt & Ringhof, København, 2018
  22. ↑ "Home page : CLOSE UP AND PRIVATE".
  23. ↑ Silke Krohn: "Everything Goes Right & Left if You Want It: The Art of Sergei Sviatchenko", 2012
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.