Maksym Vityk, a graduate of Lviv University, visited his alma mater with his own collection of paintings, consisting of 12 works related to current events in the modern history of Ukraine.
The day before, on October 11, in the main building of the Ivan Franko National University of Lviv, a ceremonial opening of the charity exhibition of Max Vityk’s paintings “Warriors of Light” took place.
This series of paintings was painted by the artist during the Revolution of Dignity in 2014. He depicts childishly sincere fantasy heroes who represent the guardian of our peace and light and combine symbolic, folklore and even religious features. For some, these heroes are fabulous, whimsical, for others – metaphorical and deep.
“This exhibition radiates light that fills not only our glorious Lviv University, but also all its visitors. Each of the paintings conveys its emotions, atmosphere and mood. The name of the exhibition fully corresponds to the works presented by the author. Every individual who is now protecting our territorial integrity and the entire generations who have done so long before us are also Warriors of Light. We must remember who made it possible for us to live and attend such events. It is our duty to properly honor everyone we have lost and to constantly support those who are now on the front lines. I thank Max for this wonderful exhibition and I invite everyone to see it while there is such an opportunity,” emphasized Maksym Kozytskyi, head of Lviv OVA.
“When I was working on the Warriors of Light series, I thought about the people I saw in Kyiv during the revolution: open, friendly, recklessly brave, naive and pure, almost like children. The funds collected during the exhibition and from the auction will be distributed among the requests received from teachers and students who defend our country in the ranks of the Armed Forces and other defense forces,” said the author of the paintings, Max Vityk.
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Max Vityk is a Ukrainian-American artist and geologist who was born in Lviv, studied geology at Lviv University, and in 1989 received a PhD in mineralogical sciences. In the same year, he moved to Canada, later to the USA, where he continued to study and work as a geologist.
During his long travels, he studied American contemporary art and began to paint primarily under the influence of artists of the school of American abstract expressionism. Combining geology and art, Vityk worked in Ukraine, Egypt, the Netherlands and the USA, and since 2020 he has been permanently living and working in Ukraine.
In his works, the artist explores both figurative and abstract art, inspired by his geological vision. Complete abstraction is, by definition, the complete absence of an object. At the same time, Max Vityk’s abstract series of sculptural paintings is based on the most concrete plot – the history of the planet Earth. For the first time in the history of art, Vityk depicted the evolution of our planet in paintings – from its birth to the present.
The main theme of the author’s fine art is the pathos of naive visions. In one of the last series of “Warriors of Light”, the artist “modernizes” the archetypal mystical material in order to transfer modern events to the plane of the eternal struggle between good and evil.
During the last twenty years, Max Vityk had many exhibitions that attracted the attention of an international audience with his special artistic vision. Recent solo exhibitions include projects at the Ukrainian Institute of America in New York, ArtMarts Gallery in Cairo, the International Museum of Art in McAllen, Texas, and the National Museum of Kyiv Art Gallery. His personal exhibitions were presented at the Scope Art fairs in Basel, Context Art in New York and Miami, as well as at Art Kyiv in Ukraine. His project on “Energy”, which for ten years decorated the central hall of Shell’s headquarters in The Hague, recently opened in Kyiv and is on permanent display in the central office of Naftogaz.