Biography
Leonid Opanasovych Antonyuk (1950, Ploska village, Rivne region – 2026, Dnipro) was a painter and educator. Wife – Olena Pakhomova, artist; son – Oleksandr Antonyuk, artist.
1966 – 1970 – Studied at the Dnipropetrovsk Art College.
1978 – Graduated from the Kyiv State Art Institute. From then on, worked as a senior lecturer of specialized disciplines at the Dnipropetrovsk Theatre and Art College (currently the Dnipro Theatre and Arts College).
From 1979 – Participant in art exhibitions.
1985 – Member of the National Union of Artists of Ukraine.
2007 – Honored Artist of Ukraine (Merited Activity of Arts).
2020 – Grand Gold Medal of the National Academy of Arts of Ukraine.
Lived and worked in Dnipro.
The future artist’s first mentor was Anatolii Zhezher, who taught at an art school in Rivne during the 1960s. It was Zhezher who advised the 16-year-old youth to enter the Dnipropetrovsk Theatre and Art College. However, the gifted artist did not stop there, continuing his studies at the Kyiv State Art Institute. In search of his own artistic trajectory, Leonid Antonyuk traveled extensively—visiting Sedniv, the Carpathians, Crimea, the North Caucasus, Armenia, and France—where he frequented art museums and picture galleries. The Louvre and Claude Monet’s estate-museum in Giverny left an indelible impression on him. For Antonyuk, beholding masterpieces of world painting firsthand was essential; it inspired him and fueled his creative exploration.
The artist’s oeuvre encompasses landscapes, still lifes, and portraits. Consistently demanding of himself, Antonyuk would often rework a piece repeatedly, setting it aside only to return to it years later. In his landscapes, he captured fleeting states of nature; in his portraits, the inner world of the sitter; and in his still lifes, he wove true magic out of ordinary objects. His plastic language represents a synthesis of Impressionism with the finest traditions of national painting. Overall, Leonid Antonyuk’s works vibrate with dynamism and a remarkable emotional energy.
Over four decades of pedagogical activity, he ushered many young artists into the art world. Among his students were Oleh Holosiy, Oleh Yasenyev, Oleksandr Reznik, Yevhen Klymenko, and others. Leonid Antonyuk noted: “For me, both painting and teaching are almost one and the same. In art, gratification comes not only from the finished product, but also from the search itself, the internal labor, and the anticipation of what might emerge. It is the same with teaching. When students grasp what I am trying to convey, when things begin to fall into place for them, I catch their excitement, feel them reaching their goals, and, one could say, I live through that.”
