Young Odesa Artist Joins National Academy of Arts
Odesa artist Stepan Ryabchenko has been selected to join the National Academy of Arts of Ukraine, becoming the youngest member and the only representative from Odesa.
This significant event is important not just for the artist himself, but for the entire cultural community of Odesa.
His inclusion in the Academy symbolizes the recognition of digital art as a crucial part of the contemporary artistic process.
Stepan Ryabchenko (born in 1987) represents a new generation of artists working at the intersection of digital art, conceptual architecture, sculpture, light installations, graphics, and photography, striving for new forms of artistic thinking and visual experimentation.
His work forms a vast artistic system where imagined creatures, metaphysical landscapes, and virtual architecture create autonomous worlds governed by internal laws. In these worlds, the boundary between the real and the imagined, the organic and the digital, the myth and technology disappears.
His works have been exhibited in leading art institutions across Ukraine, including the National Art Museum of Ukraine, the Art Arsenal, the Ukrainian House, the Museum of Contemporary Art in Odesa, among many others.
Stepan's creativity has received numerous accolades, underscoring his contribution to contemporary art at both national and international levels. In 2021, he was listed among the top 15 digital artists in the world by Electric Artefacts (UK). Other awards include the 'Art-Act' award (2010), the Kyiv Sculpture Project (2012), inclusion in the Forbes Ukraine: 30 Under 30 ranking (2015), winning a competition to create a sculptural symbol for the international airport 'Odesa' (2019), and being a finalist in the Tampa International Airport Public Art Project (USA, 2020). In 2022, Ryabchenko became a laureate of the Mikhail Bozhiy Prize in the category of 'Monumental Art'.
We are proud of the achievements of our fellow countryman!
