Oleksandr Hnylytskyi

Alexander Gnylytsky was born in Kharkiv in 1961, and in 1980 he graduated from Kharkiv state art school, faculty of theatrical and decoration painting. From the period of 1981–1987 Alexander studied at the Ukrainian State Academy of Art in Kyiv at the Department of Monumental Painting in Chekaniuk and Storozhenko's studio. During this time he became one of the active participants of the Kyiv art group "Paris Commune". In 1996, together with his wife and fellow artist, Lesia Zaiats they founded the NGO "Institution of Unstable Thoughts". Together they had a daughter named Ksenia Hnylytska who is also an artist and member of the group R.E.P. In the last years of his life he lived in Munich, Germany where he worked as a designer of products for television and cinema, as well as a conceptualist for animation. He died on November 1, 2009, in Kyiv from skin cancer.

Alexander first exhibited his work in 1991 in the capital city of Moscow, Russia. He became one of the very first pioneers of the Southern Wave movement. Southern Wave refers to an art movement at the beginning of the 1990s, especially prevalent in Ukraine, after the upheaval of perestroika. The consequence of his work is to be found in the flight and constant mimicry that is often depicted, which at times could be viewed as absurd by the viewer. In addition to the main concept of painting that he had honed throughout his education, Alexander began to turn towards a variety of types, genres and techniques within the art world. Hnylytsky was among the first Ukrainian artists who turned to the technique of video art. In the early 1990s, he screened his own action poem, Sleeping Beauty in a Glass Coffin, and founded the Institution of Unstable Thoughts based on the Ukrainian artist collective and NGO in 1996. In the 2000s the artist continued to experiment with painting and video, notably turning to irrational painting. Here he explored and decoded the myths and semantics of heroes from modern animation films, fairy tales and legends; turning them into a personal, individual myth that he recreated throughout his artwork. Towards the latter stages of his life, he moved away from the concept of looking at the interrelationship between paintings, photographs and objects and instead focused on photorealism, in addition to designing items that were used on television show and films sets.

Alexander Gnylytsky (July 17, 1961 – November 1, 2009; Ukrainian: Олександр Анатолійович Гнилицький, romanized: Oleksandr Anatoliiovych Hnylytskyi) was a Ukrainian artist who was one of the pioneers of the Ukrainian New Wave. In 1994 he became a member of the Kyiv art group named "Paris Commune". From 1996 he was one of the founders and the head of the Institute of Unstable Thoughts. He worked on installation and video art and represented Ukraine at the Venice Biennale in 2007. Much of his work resonates with the Italian transavantgarde movement.