About the artist
Yurii Solomko was born in 1962 in Crimea. In 1986, he graduated from the Krasnodar School of Art & Design. In 1992, he completed studies at the Kyiv State Art Institute. Yurii Solomko was one of the members of the famous art association The Paris Commune, that existed in the years 1989-1994. In 1997, he was named Artist of the Year in contemporary art at the International Art Festival in Kyiv, Ukraine. Apart from that, Solomko has been the multiple-winner of numerous grants and scholarships, a permanent participant of all major Ukrainian art events, and his artworks are frequently sold at global auctions. The artist skillfully juxtaposes characters and figures over political maps often creating geopolitical irony. Yurii Solomko's signature art style is undoubtedly about maps. However, the artist's imagination goes beyond the borders. In 2007, he had an exhibition "Naturprodukt!" in the Kyiv gallery "Tsekh", where numerous paintings in the traditional "canvas-oil" technique depicted fruit and vegetables in a harsh hyperrealistic manner.
List of the exhibitions
Collections: National Art Museum of Ukraine, Kyiv Henie-Onstad Kunstsenter, Hovikodden, Oslo, Norway Museum of Art at Duke University, USA Gradobank, Kyiv, Ukraine Collection of Simon de Pury (Phillips Auction House)
Exhibitions and projects: 2016 - Sex and politics , Voloshyn Gallery, Kyiv, Ukraine
2015 - Old News, Gary Bowman Gallery, Lviv, Ukraine - Montenegro–2, DEAC Gallery, Budva, Montenegro
2014 - No GMO, Dymchuk Gallery, Kyiv, Ukraine- Show Within The Show, Art Arsenal, Kyiv, Ukraine
2013 - The Contemporary Ukrainian artists, Saatchi Gallery, London, UK- Terrain Orientation, the National Art Museum of Ukraine, Kyiv, Ukraine
2012- Titans, Kyiv. Fine Art Gallery, Kyiv, Ukraine- Myth. Ukrainian Barocco, National Art Museum of Ukraine, Kyiv, Ukraine- Disputed Territory, Art Museum, Sevastopol, Crimea, Ukraine
2011- Independent, Art Arsenal, Kyiv, Ukraine- 20 Years of Presence, Modern Art Research Institute, Kyiv, Ukraine- Space Odyssey 2011, Art Arsenal, Kyiv, Ukraine
2010 - Observation. Rorschach, Kyiv. Fine Art Gallery, Kyiv, Ukraine- Limits, Collection Gallery, Kyiv, Ukraine
2009- Over the Wall, ArtNext Gallery, New York, USA- Ukraninan New Wave, National Art Museum of Ukraine, Kyiv, Ukraine,- Perfect age, Collection Gallery, Kyiv, Ukraine
2008 - G8, Tsekh Gallery, Kyiv, Ukraine- Ukranian Painting, White Box, New York, USA
2007 - Naturprodukt, Tsekh Gallery, Kyiv, Ukraine
2006 - Ukraine and Surroundings, Atelie Karas, Kyiv, Ukraine
2004 - Hyperspace, Atelie Karas, Kyiv, Ukraine- Farewell to arms, Arsenal, Kyiv, Ukraine
2003 - Regeneration, Guelman Gallery, Kyiv, Ukraine- First collection, Artist House, Kyiv, Ukraine
2002 - Office, Alipiy Gallery, Kyiv, Ukraine- Poetry of the Winds, Flag Art Festival, Seoul, Korea
2001 - Motherland, Triptych Gallery, Kyiv, Ukraine- Solo exsibition in F.Morgenbesser Spase, Vienna, Austria- The First Ukrainian Project, 49-th Biennial in Venice, Italy
2000 - Yalta-2000 (conference), Livadia palace, Crimea, Ukraine- Resultate 2000, Palais Wittgenstein, Gallery KulturAXE and Popmuseum, Vienna, Austria- Intervals, National Art Museum of Ukraine, Kyiv, Ukraine, traveled Henie-Onstad Kunstsenter, Hovikodden, Oslo, Norway
1999 - Preventive mesures, Passage de Retz, Paris, France
1998 - Scale of Depths and Heights, Tadzio Gallery, Kyiv, Ukraine- Crimea project-II, Livadia palace, Crimea, Center of contemporary Art, Kyiv, Ukraine
1997- Cartographers, Museum of contemporary Art, Zagreb, Croatian; traveled, Umetnostna Gallery, Maribor, Slovenia; traveled Mucsarnok, Budapest, Hungary; traveled Zamok Uezdovsky, Warsaw, PolandHistory of Love, Collaborative Kyiv(Ukraine), Odense(Denmark), Toulouse(France) artists, Kyiv, Ukraine- Peer Gynt, Kunstforening, Trondheim, Norway
1996 - Borders, Art Gallery Space LAB, Cleveland, USA- Cartography, RA Gallery, Kyiv, Ukraine- Vision Art, National Art Museum of Ukraine, Kyiv, Ukraine
1995- Black-White, Brama Center for Contemporary Arts, Kyiv, Ukraine
1994 - Hot Cool Orientation, Szuper Gallery, Munich, Germany- Transit, Decima Gallery, Lviv, Ukraine- Art Impressions, Alipiy Gallery, Kyiv, Ukraine
1993 - Gruppe-90, Palais Palffy, Vienna, Austria- Impreza-93, Biennial, Ivano-Frankovsk, Ukraine,
1992 - Pochatok, National Art Museum of Ukraine, Kyiv, Ukraine,- Shtil, Kyiv Gallery, Kyiv, Ukraine
1991- Artists of the Paris Commune, Kyiv, Ukraine
1990 - Exhibition of Ukraine Artists, Center of Culture Marvinholm, Ystad, Sweden- Three Generations of Ukrainian Art 1960-80, Municipal Art Gallery, Odense, Denmark,