Lyubart Lishchyns’kyi
Born on 8 July 1942
Lyubart Lishchyns’kyi was a man of numerous talents: an artist, a restorer, a jeweler, an actor, a poet, a journalist…
Lyubart Lishchyns’kyi graduated from the Lviv Institute of Decorative and Applied Arts (now the Lviv National Academy of Arts).
While working in the institute of “Ukrzahidproektrestavratsiya” (Institute of the restoration) Lishchunskyi was engaged in the restoration and conservation of Ukrainian architectural memorials (for instance, complex of Bernandynian monastery, the Arsenal, the Pharmacy Museum are all examples of his projects). He fulfilled his creativity in glass iconography, ornamental metal candleholders and fashion design. For twenty years he had been an actor in a well-known Polish Theater of Lviv.
From the early 90th Lyubart Lishchyns’kyi lived in the USA, where he continued leading an artistic life. As an actor, a reciter and a journalist he took part in numerous art performances in in New York, Philadelphia and Hunter.
Years before, in Ukraine, Lyubart Lishchyns’kyi had experimented with the design of women’s jewelry. Later, living in the USA, his hobby evolved into the new art tendency. Using great variety of materials from different countries and epochs, he created hutsulian zgardy[1]. And all nacklace no matter what material they were made from, used to carry out memoirs about the Carpathians and reminiscences of ancient Ukrainian generations.
The necklace-zgards by Lyubart Lishchyns’kyi are in private collections in the USA, France, Australia and Ukraine. They were also exhibited in the Lviv National Museum together with his father’s, Omelyan Lishchynskyi, paintings.
For his last months of life he returned from New York to Lviv.
Lyubart Lishchyns’kyi died on 17 of June in 1998. He was buried at Lychakiv cemetery in Lviv.
[1] Zgarda is a kind of jewelry worn by mountaineers from The Ukrainian Carpathians.
Slava Salyuk (Lishchyns’ka)
Born on 20 June 1974
Like her father, the son of Lviv artist Omelyan Lishchynskyi, she was brought up in a vivid artistic surrounding, among Lviv painters and architects.
Slava Salyuk graduated from the Lviv College of Technology and specialized in fashion design.
In 1994, together with the group of supporters, she organized fashion theater-studio “Secession”, which existed until 1999.
Since then Slava Salyuk has been working in the field of design. In a recent years she has carried out a lot of projects, among them we can mention an interior design for the faculty of Theology and Philosophy (Khutorivka St.) of the Ukrainian Catholic University and also for the Collegium (Stryiska St.)
Her first necklaces Slava Salyuk made in 1998, together with her father. Knowing his horrible diagnosis, Lyubart Lishchyns’kyi shared his knowledge and nuances of craft and taught his daughter how to create necklaces-zgards. After the death of her father Slava continued to develop his ideas of women’s jewelry and step by step developed her unique style. In her art Slava still uses elements from India, Africa, Latin America, Afghanistan, Ethiopia and all this helps to create necklaces related with the traditional Ukrainian jewelry.
Jewelry, created by Lyubart Lishchyns’kyi and Slava Salyuk, originates from Ukrainian traditions, especially from the hutsulian zgardas. However, the attraction of jewelry also lies in multicultural character of almost each piece of art. The string of each necklace is not only a link between generations, but also a bridge between Ukraine and a whole world.
The exhibition is open from 23 of April to 15 of May in ICONART gallery.
The exhibition opening is on Tuesday, 23 of April, at 17:00.