Biography
Tiberiy Yosypovych Silvashi (born 1947, Mukachevo, Zakarpattia Region) is an abstract painter and art theorist.
1962–1966 — Studied at the Taras Shevchenko Republican Art School in Kyiv.
1966–1972 — Studied at the Kyiv State Art Institute under the mentorship of Tetyana Yablonska. Participant in national and international exhibitions since 1971, including nearly 50 solo exhibitions.
1978 — Member of the National Union of Artists of Ukraine (NSHU).
1978 — Published the Manifesto of Chronorealism, stating that time was the primary subject of artistic research in his painting.
1988–1991 — Member of the Board and Chairman of the Youth Section of the National Union of Artists of Ukraine; led the work of youth artist groups in Sedniv.
1991–1996 — Founded the Zhyvopysnyi Zapovidnyk (Pictorial Reserve) art group, which included Marko Heyko, Oleksandr Zhyvotkov, Mykola Kryvenko, and Anatoliy Kryvolap.
1995 — Received the “Artist of the Year” award and a stipend from the Municipality of Munich, Germany.
2013 — Full Member (Academician) of the National Academy of Arts of Ukraine.
2022 — Laureate of the Taras Shevchenko National Prize of Ukraine.
2024 — Received the “UP 100” Award, entering the list of Ukraine’s leaders in the “Culture” category.
Lives and works in Kyiv.
Working in the fields of monumental art and easel painting, he is counted among the prominent creative figures of contemporary Ukrainian art. Silvashi’s oeuvre is marked by a deep culture of investigating and creating abstract art, the use of diverse techniques, and the synthesis of innovation with European traditions of non-figurative art. Silvashi asserts: “A painting is not a window onto the world, but a surface covered in paint, a source of transmission. A thing. An object. Painting is a visual strategy in which the process of perception and its duration are essential, mirroring the creation of the thing itself. It is a stream of sensory experience undergone by the viewer; it is a temptation through the energy of the color field, felt with the entire body.”
Together with like-minded painters, in response to the international trend of the late 1980s concerning the “death of painting,” he established the artistic group Zhyvopysnyi Zapovidnyk (Pictorial Reserve). The activity of this creative laboratory consisted of in-depth investigations into the nature of painting and the preservation of the picture as a constant form of painting’s existence. Silvashi’s theoretical essays, texts on prominent artists of the past and contemporary figures, and artistic manifestos represent a valuable strand of contemporary Ukrainian culture.
