Stepan
Ryabchenko is a
leading representative of contemporary Ukrainian art and one of the most
prominent artists in the international context of digital and media art. His
artistic practice encompasses digital art, conceptual architecture, sculpture,
light installations, photography, and graphics, forming a holistic visual
mythology — worlds inhabited by imaginary beings, fictional forms of life, and
metaphysical landscapes governed by internal laws created by the artist
himself.
Ryabchenko's
works have been presented at leading art institutions in Ukraine, including the
PinchukArtCentre, Mystetskyi Arsenal, National Art Museum of
Ukraine, Ukrainian House, Odesa Museum of Western and Eastern Art,
Museum of Contemporary Art of Odesa, M17 Contemporary Art Center,
and the Institute of Contemporary Art Problems (Kyiv).
Among his
international exhibition projects are presentations at the MAXXI — National
Museum of 21st Century Arts (Rome), Albertina Modern (Vienna), Art
& History Museum (Brussels), Ludwig Museum (Budapest), Saatchi
Gallery (London), Ars Electronica Center (Linz), Moderna Galerija
(Ljubljana), Danubiana Meulensteen Art Museum (Bratislava), Museum of
Contemporary Art (Zagreb), and the Ukrainian Institute of America
(New York).
In 2021,
Ryabchenko was included in the list of the 15 best digital artists in the
world, according to the British platform Electric Artefacts. Among his
distinctions are: the Art-Act Prize at the First All-Ukrainian
Triennial of Abstract Art (2010), the Kyiv Sculpture Project Prize
(2012), inclusion in the Forbes Ukraine ranking of “30 most
successful Ukrainians under 30” (2015), victory in the international
competition for the sculptural symbol of Odesa Airport (2019), finalist of
the Tampa International Airport Public Art Project (USA, 2020), and the Mykhailo
Bozhyi Prize in the category of Monumental Art (2022).
The
artist's works are held in the collections of leading Ukrainian institutions,
including: the Odesa National Art Museum, the Museum of Contemporary
Art of Odesa, the M17 Contemporary Art Center, the Institute of
Contemporary Art Problems (Kyiv), the Korsak Museum of Contemporary
Ukrainian Art (Lutsk), the Cherkasy Art Museum, the Park3020
Contemporary Sculpture Park (Lviv region), and the ArtSvit Gallery of
Contemporary Art (Dnipro); as well as in international collections: Art
Collection Telekom (Bonn), Imago Mundi — Luciano Benetton Collection
(Italy), Danubiana Meulensteen Art Museum (Bratislava). Ryabchenko’s
works are also represented in prominent private collections, including the Abramovych
Foundation, Grynyov Art Collection, Stedley Art Foundation, Adamovskiy
Foundation, Zenko Foundation, Voronov Art Foundation, and Korban
Art Foundation.
As noted by
art historian Halyna Sklyarenko:
"Stepan
Ryabchenko’s artistic practice stands among the phenomena that shape the field
of contemporary art, determining its scale and direction. The aesthetics of new
media — the domain in which he works — not only open up new dimensions of
creativity but also call for particular qualities: imagination, a spatial
sensibility, and those 'metamorphoses of the image' that make visible uncanny
links between the real and the virtual, the authentic and the imagined.
Unsurprisingly, one of the artist’s central themes is the idea of a ‘new
nature’, where myths and inventions, perceptions of the visible world, and
other unexpected projections converge."
