Biography
Andrii Ivanovych Isaiev (born 1960, Krasnoyarsk, Russia) is a painter, graphic artist, and designer.
1989 – Laureate of the 1st and 3rd prizes at the For Life on Earth International Poster Competition and the All-Union competition Man—Creator of Perestroika.
1990 – Graduated from the Grekov Odesa Art School, specializing as a display artist / designer under Vitalii Alikberov.
1990 – Laureate of two prizes at the All-Union Competition of Young Poster Artists; recipient of an honorable mention at the First All-Union Poster Competition Man, Nature, Future.
1991 – Member of the National Union of Artists of Ukraine; served as Chairman of the Board from 1993 to 1995.
From the 1990s – Engaged in independent studio practice and active participation in art exhibitions. In Khmelnytskyi, he created monumental decorative murals for the interiors of the Proskuriv Youth Center, the Palace of Children and Youth Creativity, and the Khmelnytskyi Regional Council.
1995 – Member of the Ploskyi Riv art association in Khmelnytskyi (members included Serhii Kravets, Ihor Skorupskyi, and Olena Skorupska).
From the 2000s – Works primarily in interior design.
Lives and works in Khmelnytskyi.
A representative of the Ukrainian “New Wave,” Isaiev’s artistic manner is defined by figurative metaphorism, confident draughtsmanship, and complex color harmonies. His creative method aligns with a distinct form of magical realism. The artist views himself as a conduit of artistic information—a “retransmitter” of his own works: “Sometimes a work simply progresses as if parallel to you: it ‘gets out of hand,’ and you can no longer influence it. Or it feels almost like a ‘generation gap’: I don’t understand my work; it feels as though it has already outgrown me in some way. It only seems like I am the one creating my works. As for a recognizable style, to my mind, every artist spends their entire life painting a single canvas.”
His allegorical canvases convey the trials of social existence and the mysteries of human relationships. Despite a semi-abstract stylistic approach, Isaiev’s works retain a certain poster-like quality—not in terms of artistic expression, but in their poignant artistic message—fittingly for a laureate of multiple poster competitions. The painterly vocabulary of his early period seems synthesized with an austere, metaphorical imagery inspired by his mentor at the Odesa Art School, Vitalii Alikberov. Art historian Hanna Hutnyk described Alikberov as “an Eastern sage sitting on his mountain, quietly doing his work without proving anything to anyone. He synthesized both realistic and surrealistic tendencies in painting, forging his own inimitable style.”
