DIDYK NADIIA

She was born on 24 January 1954 in Stryi, Lviv region. Her mother Iryna Bodnar (a master of folk art, embroidery) and her elder brother Ihor Bodnar (a Ukrainian graphic artist from the generation of the Sixtiers, poet, and professor of the Lviv National Academy of Arts) had a decisive influence on the artist’s creative personality.

From 1970 to 1975, Nadiia was studying at the Lviv State Institute of Applied and Decorative Arts, where she met her future husband Ivan Didyk. She got education at the Modelling Department. Her teachers were Anton Monastyrskyi, Volodymyr Cherkasov, Volodymyr Ovsiichuk, and Svitlana Zablotskana. 

Upon completion of education, for two years Nadiia was working as a fashion designer at the Uzhhorod Garment Factory, and then for five years in a row – as a costume designer at the Transcarpathian Comple[ of the Musical Society of the Ukrainian SSR, and then, until 1985, as a designer of “Torh-Reklama” Complex.

In 1985, Nadiia Didyk started her pedagogical activity as a teacher of professional disciplines (drawing, painting, bases of composition). She was also the head of the Design Department of Uzhhorod College of Arts named after A. Erdeli of the Transcarpathian Academy of Arts. She is a developer of educational and methodological publications as well as those on history and theory of art, in particular, she is the author of the album-book “Basics of composition”. For her ability to provide high-professional teaching material, reveal creative potential of students and sincerely rejoice at their successes, Nadiia Didyk gained considerable authority among colleagues and students.

Since 1988, she has been a regular participant in regional and all-Ukrainian, and since 1997 – international exhibitions. The artist is the author of almost a dozen personal exhibitions in Ukraine and abroad, in particular in Germany and France.

The artist paints in post-impressionism. Genres are diverse: decoratively stylized, similar to the amazing coloured panels of still lifes, and beautifully depicted urban landscapes, abstract compositions. Her works are intriguing, somewhat philosophical, with elements of symbolism and expression, full of energy, optimism, warmth and light. “When I have positive emotions, Nadiia Didyk says, “I try to depict them on canvas… It is a kind of suggestion, a game with a form, plane, structure.”

In 2003, the artist became a member of the National Union of Artists of Ukraine.

The whole family of the artist lives with art: her husband – Ivan Didyk (a painter, graphic artist, educator, Honoured Artist of Ukraine), her daughters – Ivanka Voitovych and Nataliia Myronchuk – painters. The creative family inspires the artist as well as visits to world-famous art centres, where she is full of impressions from the contemplation of artworks. Together with her husband, she actively attends international plein airs, where time spent in the creative circle of friends and colleagues fills her with new ideas.

The artist’s works are kept in museum collections of Ukraine, Germany, Hungary, as well as in private collections of numerous countries of the world: Argentina, Armenia, Indonesia, Canada, China, Germany, Poland, Russia, Singapore, Turkey, Slovakia, France, and Switzerland.

In 2016, the publishing house of Oleksandra Harkusha released the album-catalogue “Nadiia Didyk. Painting / Graphics”, which beautifully illustrates the author’s masterpieces.

Reproductions: “Oleksandra Harkusha Publishing House”, private collections.
Text: Liudmyla Kozlovska