Oleg Tistol
Born 1960 in Vradiivka, Ukraine
© Photo from the artist's archive

Oleg Tistol is a Ukrainian artist, a representative of Ukrainian neo-baroque and one of the leaders of the “New Ukrainian Wave”. His art, which emerged at the edge of the Soviet and post-Soviet epochs, combines both a critique of Soviet culture with a re-evaluation of its clichés, as well as the vital, joyful and playful atmosphere, which largely defined the appeal of the “Ukrainian New Wave”. Combining in his works the national and soviet symbols, myths, and utopias he discovered for himself the notion of simulacrum — a copy with no original. Such a paradoxical self-sustainability of propaganda as a substitution for the non-existing items unexpectedly unites propaganda with pop-art.

"I’ve always hoped that being an artist would be an anonymous profession. It would probably be nice to live in the shadow of own works; but very rarely, was it possible to organize a real QUARANTINE."

Oleg Tistol
Kyiv, Ukraine. April 18, 2020

Europe II (2020)

290 x 200 cm, oil and acrylic on canvas

Europe (2019)

290 x 200 cm, oil and acrylic on canvas

Europe is not as easy as it might seem at first glance.

 

Oleg Tistol, artist

Vietnam (2018)

195 x 140 cm, oil and acrylic on canvas

Ten (2018)

200 x 150 cm, oil and acrylic on canvas

When looking at Asia, I always try to distinguish my characters one from the other. And from that mirror the impressive eyes looking at me and do not exactly distinguish me from other “mine.”

 

Oleg Tistol, artist