Yahniuk Yosyp

Yosyp Yahniuk was born on 27 December 1957 in Velykyi Bychkiv village, Rakhiv district, Transcarpathia. He graduated from the Uzhhorod School of Applied Arts. Upon its completion, he got a job in a souvenir shop of the Velykyi Bychkiv Forestry Plant. He worked in a team of great carvers such as M. Vorokhta, M. Koperlos, F. Medvid, V. Niameshchuk, I. Pavliuk, V. Skrypka, V. Fedurtsia, and M. Yurashchuk. However, after some time the artist went abroad – Yosyp spent several years in the near abroad, in particular, in the Czech Republic and Slovakia. Nevertheless, outside of the native land, he did not stop creating: the artist designed and made a wooden relief of the historical genre for the town hall and landscape park sculpture in Česká Lípa. He worked as an artist in the Tatra National Park (Slovakia). Since 1984, he has been living and working in his native Rakhiv.

Yosyp Yahniuk is first of all known as a professional artist and carver. He works in different styles and genres, has perfect skills in the depiction of the Carpathian nature. The artist's paintings are like an anthem for the beauty of the Carpathian region. Each work is a piece of mountain nature, transferred by the masterful hand of the artist to the canvas, it is inspired and picturesque. 

In addition to painting, the artist is fond of root carving and wood sculpture. In particular, the artist spends a lot of time in the forest – looking for the original twisted branches, rhizomes, hurricane-twisted trees – and later, at home, he processes them, revealing a kind of quaint plant, animal or even silhouette of a man in each of them. In general, the artist has a special love for a tree – he sees a graceful beauty created by God in each of them. “I’m very fond of a tree – of its beauty, colour, silhouette, you can talk a lot about it, but for me, a tree is everything! No artist can compete with a master of nature,” Yosyp Yahniuk told in his interview.

In addition, the artist actively paints temples. He created a design of 12 churches (Rakhiv district of Transcarpathia, Vinnytsia and Mykolaiv regions). The artist says about it as follows: “When you transfer a part of yourself to the walls – the walls come to life… Every time when you reproduce an icon, an image in the temple, the image necessarily goes through your emotions, feelings, soul and leaves some energy on those dead arches, ennobles them and the walls come to life themselves. I think this is just the spirituality of that icon, that painting when you put all your being into that wall… In general, through your creative “self”, you find God in yourself.”

In 1987, Yosyp Yahniuk took part in the international exhibition-fair in Austria (Graz), together with his colleagues M. Yurashchuk and V. Fedurtsia he presented roots carvings, paintings and exclusive furniture. In 1988, he became a participant in the international exhibition-fair “From Kamchatka to the Carpathians” at the Exhibition of Achievements of the National Economy of the Ukrainian SSR in Kyiv.

Yosyp Yahniuk's works are kept in numerous private collections in Ukraine and abroad.