Biography
Volodymyr Onysymovych Bovkun (born 1951, Uman, Cherkasy Oblast) is a painter, graphic artist, muralist, and sculptor.
1966–1969: Studied at the Taras Shevchenko State Art School (Kyiv).
1975: Graduated from the Kyiv State Art Institute, specializing in monumental painting under the tutelage of Tetiana Yablonska.
Since 1977: Participant in national and international exhibitions. His solo exhibitions have been held in Kyiv (1988, 1992, 1994–96, 1998–99, 2003–2004, 2006, 2010, 2012), Lille, France (1989), Chicago, USA (1990), Vienna, Austria (1993), San Jose, USA (1996), Cairo, Egypt (1997), Edinburgh, UK (1997), and Lviv (2025).
Worked at the Art Fund of the National Union of Artists of Ukraine; since 1985, he has been practicing independently as a full-time artist.
1986: Became a member of the National Union of Artists of Ukraine.
1996: Received a grant from the US Government to stage solo exhibitions in Washington, D.C., New York, New Haven, Chicago, and San Francisco.
Lives and works in Kyiv.
Having begun his career in monumental-decorative art and printmaking/graphics, he currently works in easel painting and graphic arts. His practice synthesizes the principles of Hyperrealism, Surrealism, Conceptualism, and Pop Art. As the artist puts it: “Artists create stereotypes, but they are also the ones who shatter them.” He is the author of culturological stylistic projects (White on White, Ukrainian Baroque) that reinterpret historical visual archetypes and principles within a contemporary context.
“The artist’s supreme craftsmanship and the magnetism of his imagery draw the viewer deep into the spatial realm of his canvases, triggering an unpredictable play of concepts and symbols, an extraordinary evaluation, and a modern interpretation—and, most importantly, a sense of personal presence in a highly unusual and alluring territory of alternate realities, permeated by the exquisite anarchy of time,” writes art historian Nataliia Ratushna.
