In the course of her artistic career, Sochynsky has gradually progressed from hyperrealism to abstraction. Currently, during the pandemic, she concentrates on pieces of a more intimate scale, a new series of unique works on paper titled 'Etudes,' exploring the range of options offered by gouache, a new medium for her.. This series evolved from an earlier series of circle-shaped paintings, 'Fugues' (2016-2018), likewise marked by the dynamism of the color palette, while also referencing her earlier series of large-scale shaped canvases, 'Capriccios' (2006-2007.)
Spanning a career of over forty years, Sochynsky has exhibited widely in the U.S. and abroad. She had a solo retrospective exhibit at the Ukrainian Museum, NYC in 2012. Recent exhibits include 'Viewpoints' at Windham Fine Arts, NY, 'Flying Colors' at Zorya Fine Arts, CT, and 'Fugues: A Solo exhibit by Ilona Sochynsky' at Kaaterskill Fine Arts Gallery, NY.
A graduate of the Rhode Island School of Design and MFA from Yale, School of Art, Sochynsky has been exhibiting her works in a multiplicity of media since the early 1980's in New York, New Jersey, Connecticut, Delaware, Chicago, Washington, D.C., Maryland and Rhode Island. She successfully ran a graphic design firm, Ilona Sochynsky Associates until 1979, at which time she decided to devote energies to painting full time. Her initial paintings of this period address the concerns of Pop Art and Photorealism, particularly the work of James Rosenquist. By the mid-1980s, she shifted towards more internalized personal concerns integrating relationships, pop culture, into images with psychological and emotional intensity. In the 1990s, she turned towards formalism, exploring color and design elements, often in works made up of small-scale canvases. These interests became manifest in large-scale, shaped canvases (2006-2007) where she focused on defining and redefining the outer edges of the canvas. For commissions and inquiries please email ilonasochynsky@gmail.com.
Selected Exhibitions
Solo
Group
Collaborative
Installations
2023 Ode to a Butterfly: Ukrainian Institute of America, NYC
2022 Leading Ladies: Phoenix Crowne media installation, Personal Structures exhibition, Palazzo
Bembo, Venice Biennale
2021 Etudes, Fugues and Impromptus: Ukrainian Institute of America, NYC (solo)
2021 Summer Colors: Windham Fine Arts Gallery, Windham, NY
2020 Acceptance to the 2022 Venice Biennale
2019 Abstracts on Paper: Windham Fine Arts Gallery, NY
2017 Viewpoints: Ilona Sochynsky: Gallery on Main, Windham, NY
2017 Flying Colors: Zorya Fine Art, Greenwich, CT
2016 Fugues: A Solo Exhibit by Ilona Sochynsky, Kaaterskill Fine Arts & Craft Gallery, NY
2016 The Ukrainian Diaspora: Women Artists, 1908 – 2015, The Ukrainian Museum, NY
2015 Back to the USSR?: Zorya Fine Art, Art Basel, Miami Beach, FL
2014 A Collection Revisited: Paintings and Sculptures from the Museum’s permanent collection,
The Ukrainian Museum, NY
2012 A Singular Vision: Ilona Sochynsky, Retrospective of Painting, The Ukrainian Museum, NY, (solo)
Curated by Dr. Jaroslaw Leshko
2011 Signature Art Exhibition, The Noyes Museum, NJ
2010 NEXT 2010 Artfair, Chicago
2009 Ilona Sochysky: Fragments, Fetishes, Capriccios, Ukrainian Institute of America, NYC (solo)
Fine Art / Folk Art: A Dialogue, The Ukrainian Museum, NY
2008 Ilona Sochynsky: Abstract Intrigue, The Noyes Museum of Art, NJ (solo)
Curated by Dorrie Papademetrion, Exhibition Manager, The Noyes Museum of Art
2008 A Collection Revealed: The Ukrainian Museum at 30 – Paintings and Sculptures, The Ukrainian Museum, NY
2007 Color Variations, Gallery 10, LTD, Washington, DC
2006 Different Ways of Seeing: The Expanding World of Abstraction, The Noyes Museum of Art, NJ
Curated by A.M. Weaver, Curator of Exhibitions and Collections, The Noyes Museum of Art
2005 Convergence: Paintings by Bohdan Osyczka Marko Shuhan Ilona Sochynsky, Zorya Fine Art, CT
Exhibition Curated by Jeffrey Wechsler, Senior Curator Zimmerli Art Museum, Rutgers University
Landscape: 4 Artist’s Views, Artspace 129 Gallery, Montclair, NJ
2004 Seaside Dreams: Atlantic City Celebrates 150 Years, The Noyes Museum of Art, NJ
An Artist’s Perspective, East End Gallery, Margate, NJ
2003 Reflections and Permutations, Ukrainian Institute of America, NYC (solo)
Recent Acquisitions, The Noyes Museum of Art, NJ
2002 Lois Richards Galleries, Greenwich, CT
2001 A Portrait of Two Communities: A Photographic Essay, The Noyes Museum, NJ (solo)
2000 Gallery of the UECC, Jenkintown, PA (solo)
1999 Women Artists of Atlantic County, Garden Pier, Atlantic City, NJ
Art At The Institute 1991-1996, Ukrainian Institute of America, NYC
Poetry: Installations and Performances Yara Arts Group, NYC
1998 Fall Invitational Art Exhibition, Ocean City Arts Center, Ocean City, NJ
Faculty Exhibition, Stockton College Art Gallery, Pomona, NJ
1997 Women and Abstraction Atlantic Community College Art Gallery, Mays Landing, NJ
1996 Journey Into Abstraction: A Retrospective, Atlantic Community College Art Gallery, Mays
Landing, NJ (solo)
Women Artists of Atlantic County, Garden Pier, Atlantic City, NJ
1995 Back Porch Cafe, Rehoboth Beach, DE (solo)
The Gallery at the Taj, Atlantic City, NJ
1994 Ocean City Art Center, Ocean City, NJ (solo)
1992 Back Porch Cafe, Rehoboth Beach, DE (solo)
1991 Ukrainian Institute of America, NYC (solo)
TWG Gallery, Washington, DC (solo)
Bienale-Renewal, State Museum of Lviv, Lviv, Ukraine
Shades of Pastels, Maryland Pastel Society, Baltimore, MD
1990 Styria Galleries Inc., Soho and Locust Valley, NY
1989 Back Porch Cafe, Rehoboth Beach, DE (solo)
1988 Ukrainian Institute of Modern Art, Chicago, IL (solo)
1986 The Emerging Collector Gallery, NYC
Real Surreal, Olympia & York - Park Ave Atrium, New York, NYC
1985 Barbara Walter Gallery, NYC
New York City Partnership, Inc., NYC
1984 Ukrainian Institute of America, NYC (solo)
Community Gallery, Brooklyn Museum, Brooklyn, NY
1983 Corporate Art Directions, NYC
Weil & Company, NYC
1982 RISD: Alumni Biennial Exhibition III, Wood Gerry Gallery, Providence, RI
1981 Semaphore Gallery, NYC
Engagements
Galleries
Projects
Collections
Commissions
Residencies
GALLERY REPRESENTATION
Zorya Fine Art, Greenwich, CT, 2005 to present
Accent Gallery, Ocean City, NJ, 1998-2014
East End Gallery, Margate, NJ, 1999-2012
The Gallery At Sagemore, Ocean City, NJ 1999-2007
William Ris Galleries, Stone Harbor, NJ 2000-2001
Evergreen Gallery, Spring Lake, NJ 1997-98
The Gallery at the Taj, Atlantic City, NJ 1994-1996
Corporate Art Directions, NYC 1983-1990
PUBLIC ART
Mural on Arctic and Mississippi Avenues: Fishing Pier, 2001
Commissioned by: Casino Reinvestment Development Authority, The City of Atlantic City, and Atlantic City Special Improvement District
COMMISSIONS
Cooper Cancer Institute, 2013
AtlantiCare, The Cancer Care Institute, NJ, 2009
Harrah’s Bally’s Casino, Atlantic City, NJ, 2006-2007
Atlantic City Lifeguard Station Murals, 2003
Ruth Newman Shapiro Cancer and Heart Fund 1998-2000
Hall Capital Partners, LLC, 1982
ARTIST-IN-RESIDENCE
The Noyes Museum of Art, Portrait of Two Communities, 2001
A six-month collaboration with the Noyes Museum of Art: An Artist & Designer works with area schools to create a multi-component community arts project. Using visual arts as a form of communication, middle school students from Hispanic and Asian communities in NJ were encouraged to explore their cultural values and shared aspirations. Through the artist’s visits to local schools and instruction on graphic design children were inspired to create work for a poster project entitled “Me and My Community.”
Instruction by the Artist was also provided to both children and adults at the Museum in conjunction with the presentation of her photo essay documenting and reflecting these communities.
CURATORIAL PROJECTS
Crafting Identity: Twelve Artists Interpret Their Cultural Roots, Ukrainian Institute of America, NYC, 2001
In this group show, twelve artists bring the historic tradition of craft and folk art squarely into the 21st Century. Melding ancient techniques with contemporary aesthetics, the exhibition participants cast a fresh light on each of the diverse mediums in which they operate, from textile design to ceramics to silversmithing. Artists: Masha Archer, Boris Dudchenko, Nancy Weeks Dudchenko, Natalia Kormeluk, Lialia Kuchma, Dan Kvitka, Sohia Lada, Nina Lapchyk, Kateryna Nemyra, Zorianna Sokhatska, Valentin, Yotkov, Sofia Zielyk
Flowers As Muse, Ukrainian Institute of America, NYC, 1999
With this exhibition the intent was to show the exuberance, forcefulness and beauty of flowers when they are the primary source of inspiration to artistic expression. This invitational including the work of five artists whose approaches to the subject matter are quite different but who share the exhilaration and joy of creating art when flowers serve as Muse. Intentionally this assembly of works comprises a rich variety of media: prints, oils, watercolors, drawings, pastels and sculptures. Artists: Nina Klymowska, Olga Maryschuk, Natalia Pohrebinska, Romana Rainey, Ilona Sochynsky, Martha Hirniak Voyevidka.
WORKSHOPS
Circle of Hands, The Noyes Museum, Oceanville, NJ 2000
Urban Youth Golf League of Atlantic City
Guided by the artist, 25 students (1st and 2nd Grades) begin by tracing their hands and work toward drawing symbols that express their feelings of togetherness. The individual drawings will be combined to form a type of group signature symbolizing unity.
Graphic Design Workshop for Adults, The Noyes Museum, Oceanville, NJ, 2000
This workshop focuses on how to approach a design project such as brochures, newsletters, advertising, posters, etc. that are attractively presented and invite reading. The artist leads participants in hands-on exercises to strengthen their design principles.
Artist as Catalyst, Texas Avenue Reeds Road Schools, Atlantic City & Absecon, NJ 2000
Approx. 200 students Middle Schools (grades 6 and 7) Artist works directly with 200 students involved on a consulting basis. Each student creates a poster (20" x 26") which depicts their community and includes an interpretive statement expressing the thoughts behind the work. The artist provides instruction and commentary on composition, typography and design while having direct interaction with students.
COLLECTIONS (partial listing)
Zimmerli Art Museum, Rutgers University
The Ukrainian Museum
The Noyes Museum of Art
Morris Propp Foundation
Phoenix Crowne Holdings
Daria Hoydysh Endowment for the Arts
Dr. Yaroslav Leshko, Chair Emeritus of Art History at Smith College
Represented in many additional private collections
Selected Bibliography
Articles
Awards
Professional
Honors
ARTICLES
Leshko, Jaroslaw, A Singular Vision: Ilona Sochynsky Retrospective of Paintings, Exhibition Catalog, NY (2012)
Wechsler, Jeffrey, Ilona Sochynsky: Fragments, Fetishes, Capriccios, Exhibition Catalogue, New York, NY (2009)
Papademetriou, Dorrie, Ilona Sochynsky: Abstract Intrigue, Exhibition Catalogue, Pomona, NJ (2008)
Wechsler, Jeffrey, Convergence: Paintings by Bohdan Osyczka, Marko Shuhan, and Ilona Sochynsky, Exhibition Catalogue, Greenwich, CT (2005)
Ayers, Robert REVIEWS: National, Bohdan Osyczka, Ilona Sochynsky, Marko Shuhan, Zorya Fine Art, Greenwich CT, Art News, (Summer 2005)
Saj, Christina, REVIEW: Sochynsky's New Artworks, The Ukrainian Weekly, (Dec 21, 2003)
McGarvey, Denise, Richard Stockton College Art Gallery Faculty Exhibition, Exhibition Catalogue, Pomona, NJ, (1998)
Saj, Christina, Ilona Sochynsky: A Journey into Abstraction, The Creative Woman, Volume XIII, No. 4, Winter (1993)
Sochynsky, Ilona, Excerpts from a conversation about myself, Svito-Vyd (International Arts and Literary Journal), New York-Kiev, (April-June1992)
Bass Cope, Penelope, Paintings and more down by the shore, The News Journal, Wilmington, DE, (14 July 1989)
Gill, Brendan, Posters made possible by a grant from Mobil, Graphis Press Corp., Zurich, Switzerland, (1988)
Leshko, Yaroslav, Two Fascinating Alternatives: Joint Exhibition of Rainey and Sochynsky, The Ukrainian Weekly, Jersey City, NJ (2 August 1987)
Hordynskyj, Sviatoslaw, Paintings of Ilona Sochynsky,Ukrainian Art Digest , Philadelphia, PA, (Oct. 1985)
Pevnyj, Bohdan, Art: Selective Viewing, Suczasnist , New York, NY (Jan 1985)
Teren-Yskiw, Theodore, On-Art Themes: Debut of Ilona Sochynsky at the Ukrainian Institute of America, Svoboda , Jersey City, NJ (9 Nov. 1984)
Pelenska, Oksana, BIENALE- RENEWAL LVIV 1991 of Ukrainian Painting, Exhibition Catalogue, Atlos Pub., Lviv, Ukraine. (1991)
Graphic Design USA:3, AIGA, Watson-Guptill Publications, NY, (1982)
PROFESSIONAL
Principal, Ilona Sochynsky Associates, NY
Owner of a design firm specializing in corporate communications, graphic identity programs, advertising campaigns, and signage. Assignments include the design of logos, posters, brochures, annual reports, interior signage, and exterior architectural graphics. Notable corporate clients comprise Mobil Corporation, Paine Webber, Bank of America, Museum of Modern Art, Yale University, Union Pacific, AMAX, SCM, and the Schubert Organization.
TEACHING
College Level
Adjunct Professor, Arts and Humanities,The Richard Stockton College of New Jersey, 1997-1998
Adjunct Professor, Arts and Humanities, Atlantic Cape Community College, New Jersey, 1993-1996
Courses Taught
An Introduction to Desktop Publishing using PageMaker
Graphic Design I
Description: Overview of art and design for visual communications, with emphasis on conceptual and technical study of typographic syntax and application. Problem-solving methods, verbal/visual conceptual skills, technique, and craft are developed through a series of problems, which parallel the professional world. Assignments in typographic composition, logo design, sequential layout, type and image, symbols, and charts are given, utilizing computer and traditional design tools.
AWARDS AND HONORS
12th Annual Paul Aiken Encore Award 2007
"Miniature Art", Second Prize, Atlantic City Arts Center, Atlantic City, NJ 2004
Juror, A.M. Weaver, Curator of Exhibitions and Collections, The Noyes Museum of Art
Merit Award in Painting, Women Artists of Atlantic County, Garden Pier, Atlantic City, NJ 2001
American Institute of Graphics Arts (AIGA): Communication Graphic Awards
New York Type Directors Club Award
Graphic Design USA: 3rd Annual Desi Awards
Graphic Design USA: 4th Annual Desi Awards
Selected Essays
Wechsler
Leshkow
LaMonica
Jaroslaw Leshko
Prof. Emeritus of Art, Smith College
lIona Sochynsky’s painting career, now entering its fourth decade, presents an oeuvre of visual beauty, intelligence and complexity that is a deeply personal journey of discovery.
Her imagery, rendered with precision and clarity, is a vehicle through which she explores the nature of her art: the intersection of objective reality and abstraction; the relationship of the fragment to the whole; the significance of peripheral forms of composition; the expressive power of color. These formal concerns help articulate the themes of her work that encompass the gamut of human experience.
Sochynsky attended the Rhode Island School of Design (RISD), from which she graduated in 1969 with a B.F.A. degree. She completed her studies at Yale University, from which she received her M.F.A. in 1972. After graduating from Yale, she successfully ran the Ilona Sochynsky Associates, a graphic design firm, till 1979, when the imperative to paint won out.
Sochynsky attended the Rhode Island School of Design (RISD), from which she graduated in 1969 with a B.F.A. degree. She completed her studies at Yale University, from which she received her M.F.A. in 1972. After graduating from Yale, she successfully ran the Ilona Sochynsky Associates, a graphic design firm, till 1979, when the imperative to paint won out.
In her first years as a painter, Sochynsky investigated contemporary art trends: she responded to the imagery of Pop Art to which she was exposed as a student at RISD and was also influenced by Photorealism, a movement of the 1970’s tangentially related to Pop Art. The imagery of vehicles and city views, rendered in a hyperrealist style, resonated with her as evidenced in works like Cadillac (1979).
By the early 1980’s Sochynsky began to internalize her creative experience and paint images with an emotional and psychological intensity. In this effort she focused on herself and those close to her. The relatively few portraits in her oeuvre come from this period. Among the earliest is her Self-Portrait with Hairbrush of 1982, and Self-Portrait with Towel, done a year later in 1983. The artist’s major protagonist in these personally meaningful works is her husband, Petro. In a number of important paintings like Petro in Space of 1983, he is her emissary, a traveler through space and the realms of fantasy, dreams and nightmares. These and other works of the period evidence the artist’s erudition and awareness of the remarkably liberating and challenging aspect of 20th century culture. To that end, she was receptive to impulses that inform her art—the discipline of Cubism, the provocations of Marcel Duchamp that opened art’s Pandora’s Box, the emancipation of color, the élan of Art Deco, the fantasy of Surrealist dreams, the generous language of popular culture. These and other influences are assimilated into her personal and distinctive style in works like Purple Glove (1986) and Venus (1990) .
During the 1990’s and into the 21st century, Sochynsky shifted the narrative of her art toward more formal concerns. In her small paintings from the 1990’s, for example, her focus was on the interaction of forms and colors that were, to a large extent, abstract. Done over a decade, these works maintain a cohesiveness of vision. These infinitely inventive works are small only in scale; for in their complexity of shapes and colors and in their execution, they are compelling, fully resolved and unique paintings.
Jeffrey Wechsler
Senior Curator
Jane Voorhees Zimmerli Art Museum
Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey
The diversity of art of the modern era has sometimes been viewed as a conflict between two basic approaches, the realistic and the abstract. How enlightening and enjoyable it is, therefore, to see an oeuvre that renders the issue moot through a hybrid art that encompasses both realism and abstraction, delving into the visual and conceptual potential of both of these artistic worlds. The paintings of Ilona Sochynsky, as represented by the several series in the current exhibition, demonstrate that the visualization of the non-objective and the natural may be marked by a surprising mutual interrelationship, and that a fascinating art can be built on the borderline of the two approaches. While this selection covers a relatively brief chronological range, from 2006 to 2009, it displays the ongoing development and transformation of the artist’s vision into connected yet distinct themes, each partaking of essential aspects of Sochynsky’s basic concepts of image construction.
Crucial to Sochynsky’s art is the emphasis upon, and appreciation of, the detail. In general, paintings are usually perceived as a whole, after which an observer may study various small parts – details – that comprise the full image. Sochynsky’s paintings can be apprehended as overall compositions, of course, as all well-made paintings should be, but they are in essence created from details.
Karen LaMonica
Chief Curator
Phoenix Crowne Holdings
New York
Stripping images to their barest essential is principle in Sochynsky’s dialogue. While at first her selection and execution of composit fragments may seem like generalizations, they are quite precise. Exploration of a subject from a close vantage point merely leads to further abstraction. These are compositions that offer a bounty of juxtaposed information, comparative to simultaneous thought or events, offering how something is experienced, in total, then processed, and filed in its personal message to each individual’s viewpoint.
From the onset, Sochynsky defined her mission by the constancy of style and evolving imagery that articulates through different aspects of her art’s growth and essence. A variety of impulses inform her art: The discipline of Cubism, the provocation of Duchamp and DaDa, the emancipation of color of the Fauves and its progression through the Orphism of Robert and Sonia Dulaunay, with its strong colors and geometry. We see the evocative shape-shifting and story-telling of Juan Miro. Making the leap through Rosenquist’s Pop Hyperrealism, the artist commands space like Giorgio De Chirico. Through Sochynsky’s eyes we have a Dali brand of Surreal shapes floating in space. Broken objects, floating biomorphic forms and engulfing textures wrap the viewer in their bounty, beauty and boldness.