Vadim Panchenko

“What and who they are to me and who I am for them. The phenomenon of sacrifice and lack of the possibilities of choice.”

Vadim Panchenko’s art raises important existential questions and delves deep into its meaninglessness. He re-positions the figurative to study the theme of fatalism. Panchenko’s works fall between figurative and abstract and seem to be deeply influenced by the philosophy of existentialism. His works are expressionist, initiating into a realm much different than the historic league of artists, who mean to shatter the existing pedagogy as well as practice. Rather, Panchenko struggles against the extant hypocrisy and meaninglessness that grips one!

Born 1989, in Lviv, Ukraine, Panchenko completed a Masters Degree from the Faculty of Design at the Lviv National Academy of Art. Panchenko’s artistic career began with figurative art, soon switching to abstract works. An artist over time develops concrete realisation, which gradually impacts the external activities, and that appears to have happened with Panchenko’s shift to abstraction. Totally dejecting the realistic approach, he felt more drawn towards the essence of the form, which strived to transform into a true face of fatalism.

Panchenko is well known for his series Fishes, which uses the image of fish to convey the futility and helplessness of human existence. Charged with a riot of colours, expansive strokes and a serpentine maze of elongated shapes, which on closer examination, it reveals the presence of fish without head and tail. Devoid of any specific agency, the fish has been a recurring metaphor of human existence without direction and sanity.

Panchenko had exhibited solo twice in Ukraine and participated in group exhibitions in Ukraine and India. He works across a variety of mediums, most important paintings, graphics, and installation.

Vadim Panchenko lives and works in Ukraine.