Taras Levkiv

• Name — Taras Levkiv • Native Name — Тарас Левків • Born — 25 June 1940 • Birthplace — Mala Berezovytsia, Zbarazh Raion, Ternopil Oblast, Ukrainian SSR, USSR • Died — 9 March 2025 • Place of death — Vynnyky, Lviv Oblast, Ukraine • Resting Place — Lychakiv Cemetery • Education — Ivan Trush Lviv State College of Decorative and Fine Arts • Style — Ceramic art Taras Bohdanovych Levkiv (25 June 1940 – 9 March 2025) was a Ukrainian artist who specialised in ceramic art. From the 1980s, he was the head of the Department of Art Ceramics at Ivan Trush Lviv State College of Decorative and Fine Arts.

Taras Levkiv was born in Mala Berezovytsia near Zbarazh, in the Ternopil region of West Ukraine, only months after the village was absorbed into the Ukrainian SSR after the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact. He was the son of Bohdan Andriyovych Levkiv (1912–1999) and Olga Ivanivna Levkiv (née Omelan) (1921–2013). In 1964 he graduated from Lviv College of applied arts named in I. Trush (Ceramics Department). There he met his teacher Taras Dragan, with whom he would go on to develop a close relationship and the two would go on to enjoy years of true friendship. In 1971 he graduated from Lviv Institute of applied and decorative arts. At the end of 1970 he held his private student's exhibition in the town. The works he presented opened up new opportunities of an ancient method of potter's wheel; they had expressive ethnographic features. He made an acquaintance with Pēteris Martinsons at a workshop in Dzintari (Latvia). Since that time the artist's works has been evolving as if 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 at the ІІІ International biennale in Valorize (France). He would later go on to receive honors in competitions in artistic ceramics in Faience (Italy; 1974, 1978, 1979, 1980). In the 1980s T. Levkiv's range of artistic interests delved into another field. Levkiv began to give his priority to cosmological themes. He presented his works at 17 private exhibitions particularly in Tbilisi, Leningrad, Ternopil and other cities. The artist took part in 103 regional, all-Ukrainian and international exhibitions (Tartu, Estonia; Osaka, Japan; Zheshuv, Poland; Moscow, Russia etc.). For over 20 years Taras Bohdanovych headed the Ceramics Department at 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 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. 2. Official Taras Levkiv Website Levkiv died in Vynnyky, Lviv Oblast on 9 March 2025, at the age of 84.