Volodymyr Semkiv

Volodymyr Semkiv

He was born on April 15, 1983 in the village of Prybuzhany, Kamyanka-Buzka district, Lviv region.

The parents - mother Lyuba, father Slavko - came from the same village. Two grandmothers are immigrants from Lemkivshchyna. He has a younger brother and sister. Ivan and Olya are furniture makers and architects. His father, a mechanical engineer, and his mother, an economist, were engaged in entrepreneurship: "Dad did not like business, he was forced to do it because he had children to raise. In old age, he finally got rid of it. My father liked to "twist nuts" more, he just liked cars, and together with my mother's cousin, he also had a transport company for up to two cars."
Volodymyr went to school in Kamianets-Buzka, covering about two kilometers in one direction every day. From an early age, he liked to sculpt from plasticine - his mother bought five packs at a time for the young sculptor.
He received his first higher education at the Faculty of Law at the Lviv Commercial Academy. Subsequently, he worked in a large consulting company - he traveled almost all over Ukraine, protecting the interests of clients.
Oddly enough, having a successful professional job that guaranteed financial stability, the soul longed for something else. Soon, Semkiv began attending evening drawing courses at the Lviv Academy of Arts, so he entered it on the second attempt and from 2007 studied at the sculpture department. He calls the competitive environment of his group mates who had previous professional training as decisive for him: among others, Olenka Doduchto, Roman Pykh, Taras Pyloponyuk, Denys Shymanskyi. It was with Denis that he became friends, together they visited the first sculptural open-air exhibitions, participated in competitions, organized exhibitions, and worked in the same workshop on Zelenia Street in Lviv.
Among the teachers of Semkiv Academy, he often mentions Yuriy Dvornikov, a ceramist who drew and talked a lot about sculpture and art in general. Mykola Molchan was also remembered.

Volodymyr Semkiv recalls:
"I was lucky to get to Gdańsk on exchange. In the 2nd or 3rd year, Denis and I started going outdoors, mostly to Poland. Among the teachers, Katarzyna Yuzefovich was remembered, she led general sculpture. We had two tasks: to sculpt the figure and submit a conceptual project.
And Mariusz Kulpa taught drawing. He said to me: "Oh! I see, you know how to draw, but do something wrong...".
The hostel was in the center of the old city, but in order to live there, to pay for it, my friend Mark and I agreed to the restoration, froze a little on the scaffolding, and earned that hostel for half a year.
In general, I was impressed by the freedom: we teach to do, and they teach to think, as ceramist Yanina Myronova said.
Jan Shchypka, who is a fan of casting, was also remembered. In September, before the start of the academic year, a technology symposium on iron casting has been organized in Poland for more than 20 years. Many students come there, 50 of them, joint work lasts for two weeks, it's an incredible crowd... I went there three years after graduating from the Academy...".
"I had an interesting story with my bachelor's work. I decided that something should be done for the square in front of the UCU church. Therefore, I proposed the composition "To the Martyrs of the UGCC": I made such openwork birds that look like crosses, and composed the project in the visualization where my sculptures now stand in front of the UCU... Then I would not have believed that my works would really stand in this place one day. (This is about the sculptural group for the Ukrainian Catholic University, UKU campus, 2017–2022, Vapniak, Lviv.)
I completed my master's thesis on the order of a priest from Yavoriv region, who gave me complete freedom of expression. He sculpted it quite modernistically. A three-meter column figure standing in the forest, among the trees, cast in polyester resin. (Here - about the sculpture "Saint Onufry" in the Studinets tract, Yavoriv district, Lviv region.)
In fact, customers are always lucky. I mainly engaged in public sculpture, but the gallery format is a rarity for me. We were instructed in the same way at the Academy: you are monumental sculptures, you should make monuments."
Catalog of the author's works
06.02.2024 – 24.03.2024
Exhibition Lviv Cathedral Square 9
01.12.2023 – 04.02.2024
Exhibition Lviv Cathedral Square 9
30.11.2023 – 11.02.2024
Exhibition Lviv Ya Gallery
12.09.2023 – 04.11.2023
Exhibition Lviv Sensoteka, Ulas Samchuk Street, 22
20.09.2023 – 11.10.2023
18.08.2023 – 18.08.2024
Exhibition Lviv Stryiskyi park
08.08.2023 – 24.09.2023
Exhibition Lviv Ya Gallery
26.07.2023 – 17.09.2023
Exhibition Kyiv Ya Gallery
17.06.2023 – 06.08.2023
Exhibition Lviv Soborna Square 9
01.06.2023 – 01.09.2023
Exhibition Lviv Ya Gallery
08.06.2023 – 17.09.2023
Exhibition Lviv Ya Gallery
30.03.2023 – 05.06.2023
Exhibition Lviv Ya Gallery
15.03.2023 – 21.05.2023
Exhibition Kyiv Ya Gallery
24.02.2023 – 21.05.2023
Exhibition Copenhagen Ukraine House in Denmark