Taras Levkiv

Taras Bohdanovych Levkiv (born 25 June 1940) (Ukrainian: Тарас Богданович Левків) is an honored Ukrainian artist who specializes in ceramic art. Since the 1980s, he has been the head of the Department of Art Ceramics at Ivan Trush Lviv State College of Decorative and Fine Arts.

Life

Taras Levkiv was born on June 25, 1940, in the village of Mala Berezovytsya, now located in Zbarazh Raion, Ternopil Oblast, Ukraine. In 1964 he graduated from Lviv College of applied arts named in I. Trush (Ceramics Department). There he met his teacher Taras Dragan. Their relations became a long years mental nearness and the true friendship.

In 1971 he graduated from Lviv Institute of applied and decorative arts. At the end of 1970 there was his private student's exhibition in the town. The works he represented opened new opportunities of an ancient method of potter's wheel, they had expressive ethnographic features.

He made an acquaintance with Peteris Martinson at a workshop in Dzintari (Latvia). Since that time the artist's works has been evolutioning like in two directions. The first one represents bold experiments in the area of free creation which is officially forbidden in sculpture. The second one is in his ability to incarnate and carry to the spectator his own social-political persuasion in original artistic form.

In 1972 he became the first Representative from Ukraine on ІІІ International biennale in Valorize (France). And later he has got honors in competitions on artistic ceramics in Faience (Italy; 1974, 1978, 1979, 1980).

In 1980s T. Levkiv's range of artistic interests achieved another fields. The artist gives his priority to cosmological themes. He represents his works at 17 private exhibitions particularly in Tbilisi, Leningrad, Ternopil and other cities. The artist has taken part in 103 regional, all-Ukrainian and international exhibitions (Tartu, Estonia; Osaka, Japan; Zheshuv, Poland; Moscow, Russia etc).

Over 20 years Taras Bogdanovych is a head of Ceramics Department in Lviv College of decorative and applied arts named in I. Trush. He was a Deputy of Lviv regional administration of the First democratic convocation.

Over 10 years T. Levkiv has worked at public principles as a manager of projects at the construction in Vynnyky of Autocephalous Orthodox Church of the Saint Volodymyr and the Saint Olga.

On ІІІ All-Ukrainian symposium of ceramics in Opshnae (1999) he got I honor for decorative plastic work "Bilomorcanal".

Museums of Lviv, Ternopil, Tbilisi, the Saints-Petersburg, Berlin, Prague and other cities show to their visitors the artist's works.