Voznytskyi Andrii

He was born on 22 September 1975 in a well-known artistic family. His grandfather Borys Voznytskyi – Hero of Ukraine, a famous Ukrainian art critic, academician, head of the Lviv Art Gallery. Andrey's acquaintance with art started in his childhood when he painted his own drawings for the replicas of art albums. When he was young, he was fond of works by famous British sculptors Henry Moore and Barbara Hepworth, one of the founders of the abstract sculpture – the French sculptor of Romanian origin Constantin Brancusi, as well as the abstractionist, sculptor and poet Jean Arp.

In 1990, Andrey entered the Lviv School of Applied Arts named after I. Trush, sculpture department and after graduation in 1994, he subsequently continued his studies at the Lviv Academy of Arts, where he met his future wife Olesia – a painter and ceramic artist from Transcarpathia.

After graduation, Andrey and Olesia moved to Uzhhorod, working together on various projects, including interior and outdoor design, working at the same time on a sculpture.

It is the analysis of natural forms that Andrey Voznicki considers the basis for the creation of decorative and monumental plastics, putting the energy of dynamics and statics in his work, trying to conduct a dialogue with the surrounding world. Abstract forms, female and male figures are combined by a certain system of shaping. The author makes sculptures of concrete and wood, but his favourite material is bronze. It is capable to carry all the functions which the author defines and fully reproduce the ideas and concepts of the artist. At the moment, the artist is working on a series of works “Burden”, which is partly autobiographical and reflects the internal emotions. The artist also tries himself in painting.

In 2015, for the sculptural work “Reflections” Andrey Voznicki became a laureate of the Regional Prize named after Y. Bokshai and A. Erdeli in the field of fine arts, decorative and applied arts.

Works of the artistic couple Andrei and Olesia take part in numerous national exhibitions. One of the recent – exhibitions of the creative project “Goodbye Word” took place in 2017 in Uzhhorod and in 2018 in Kyiv. According to the curator of the project Taras Tabaka, the discourse between communication and information, the practice of solitude and the denial of mentoring, the movement towards a new sensibility in the context of global networks -  the main themes and emphasis of the creative project.

The sculptor himself told about one of the two works presented at the exhibition: ‘This is a “Dark Matter”, and the idea to create such a spatial object came a long time ago, probably, it is rooted in my childhood hobbies of palaeontology. Perhaps, this work resembles a dinosaur's skull to someone or the spiral of the Universe, but in the context of the general idea of the exhibition, the work resembles the background of humanity and makes the viewer think about the past, the future and where we go?”

In 2018, Andrey Voznicki's sculptures and paintings took part in a new project “Lviv Art Days”, created on the analogue of world art weeks, in order to present and promote Ukrainian artists in the framework of international artistic events held in Lviv.

The works of the artist are kept in numerous private collections in Ukraine, Great Britain, Belgium, the United States of America and other countries.

Text: Liudmyla Kozlovska
© Art & Culture Foundation Brovdi Art