Biography
Marko Stepanovych Heiko (1956, village of Stanislavchyk, Kyiv region – 2009, Kyiv) was a painter, graphic artist, and sculptor.
1985 – Graduated from the Painting Department of the Kyiv State Art Institute. According to Oleh Holosiy’s own testimony, Marko Heiko’s diploma work influenced his artistic development.
From 1985 – Participated in art exhibitions.
1988–1989 – Participant in the residency and member of the informal Sedniv Creative Group, House of Creativity of the National Union of Artists of Ukraine, village of Sedniv, Chernihiv region.
1989 – Member of the National Union of Artists of Ukraine; laureate of the Marie Bashkirtseff Prize.
1992–1995 – Member of the Zhyvopysnyi Zapovidnyk [Artistic Reserve] artistic association (led by Tiberiy Silvashi).
Marko Heiko’s artistic manner was formed during his student years. Art historian Olha Lahutenko notes: “In the institute, Marko was already a conscious ‘avant-gardist’ who endured scathing critical evaluations. Although among the students, it was well known who was a ‘real painter’.” After his studies, he was assigned to the Poltava Art Production Combine, where he met Lev Markosian (whose canvas Osinnye Svitlo [Autumn Light], 1988, is held in the KhRAM collection), who exerted a certain influence on Heiko. In the early 1990s, both artists were recognized as the founders of the contemporary Poltava school of painting.
Heiko was a prominent representative of the Ukrainian “New Wave” and belonged to the core of the Zhyvopysnyi Zapovidnyk [Artistic Reserve] artistic association. He worked at an intense emotional breaking point, striving for perfection in exploring the problem of form and color. In his works, he recreated both an ideal, harmonious world and conveyed the drama of human existence. He felt himself to be “flesh of the flesh” of the Ukrainian land: his generously impasto works are emotional and metaphorical at the same time. “Heiko’s method accumulates various painterly and plastic experiences of the 20th century. The artist sees a foothold in today’s changing world in the concentration of everyone’s spiritual and emotional efforts, as demonstrated by his tense compositions filled with hidden drama” (Serhii Yarych).
