Yevhen Lisniak

Ukrainian artist Yevhen Lisniak creates vivid and colorful abstract works marked by a sense of intense emotional energy. His practice is grounded in the search for, and contemplation of, tension between a range of abstract sensations: such as randomness versus the ideal; naiveté versus knowledge; or animal nature versus the superhuman. This tension is visible in the mixture of visual references Lisniak deploys in the work. Some of his paintings incorporate recognizable imagery that places them in the current moment, such as glimpses of home interiors during the time of social isolation, or references to advertising, fashion, cinema, or the work of other contemporary artists. Most of his works, however, are completely abstract. Lisniak employs an intuitive, performative method of painting that incorporates gestural mark making, scraping, and layering of impasto mediums, in the tradition of Abstract Expressionism. He strives to merge colors, shapes, lines and forms in ways that inspire sensations of lightness and beauty, while simultaneously suggesting anxiety and an embrace of the unknown. His work has been exhibited extensively in Ukraine. He lives and works in Lviv.