Serhii Komornyi

Serhii Viacheslavovych Komornyi was born on 23 May 1963 in Chuhuiv, Kharkiv Oblast — Ilya Repin's home town, a fact that runs through much of his subject matter. He graduated from the Kharkiv State Art School in 1982, where he trained in the design department under Yurii Kyianskyi, Ye. Nadiezhdin and Yevhen Spitsevych, and from 1984 to 1991 worked as chief artist of the Chuhuiv workshops of the Kharkiv Regional Art and Design Combine. He has exhibited continuously since 1988 and joined the National Union of Artists of Ukraine in 2003. He is a laureate of the Ilya Repin Prize in painting and graphic art, and a co-founder and honorary member of the European Academy of Painting 'LeonArt' in Germany. His chosen medium is pastel on large sheets of paper, giving works that can be classed equally as graphics or as painting and that critics describe as overflowing with internal energy and love of life. Recurring cycles include 'Legends of Plein-airs' (2008–2010) and 'Chuhuiv Evening' (2008), alongside portraits of fellow artists and views of the churches of the Chuhuiv region. Solo exhibitions have been held in Kharkiv (2001–02, 2004, 2008), Klagenfurt (2003), Bad Pyrmont (2004, 2007), Chuhuiv (2005, 2007) and Sumy (2010). His work is in the Sumy Art Museum, the Repin Memorial Museum in Chuhuiv and private collections in Ukraine, the USA, Austria, Germany and Israel. He lives and works in Kharkiv.

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