About Illia Prunenko

Ukrainian artist Illia Prunenko paints in a provocative yet humorous manner to explore limits of corporeality, human cognition and representation. Trained in philosophy and religion studies, he largely draws inspiration from early existential philosophy and its preoccupation with Christian ethics, notions of evil, morality, man’s subjective and objective truths.

Prunenko debuted at the end of the 2000’s with two solo shows  “Surprise” and “Representation” (2009) and over the course of the next decade he collaborated with a number of galleries in Ukraine. His other shows include “Sense of Christianity” (2010), “Throat” (2010), “Moment of Silence” (2011) and “Too beautiful” (Shift Gallery, 2013), “Blind” (Ya Gallery, 2012), “Full Face” (Karas Gallery) among others. In 2010 he won Ukraine’s regional competition for the 9th Henkel Art Award. His works were featured in “Paintings Only”— a national selection of emerging Ukrainian artists (cur. Oleksandr Soloviov, Art Arsenal). Prunenko was born in 1991 in Dnipropetrovsk (now Dnipro, Ukraine) where he lives and works.