Bohdan Soroka

Bohdan Soroka (1940 - 2015) is a Ukrainian nonconformist artist. He worked in the field of print graphics, easels, and monumental painting. He believed that art is an essential factor in forming society's worldview. Therefore, all his works are a moral manifesto. The creative language of the artist is grotesque and symbolic. Intellectual reflection prevails over the sensory perception of the world. Bohdan Soroka's artistic style resembles the style of ancient sacred graphics: planar and with elements of poetic texts. Bohdan Soroka participates in numerous group and personal exhibitions in Ukraine and abroad, particularly in Lithuania, France, Canada, and the USA.

The main characters of his works are ordinary people who, despite the disturbing reality, try not to lose the most valuable thing - a sense of freedom, even if it is illusory. The artist subtly feels the nature of his characters, rethinks daily emotions in an allegorical form, and reflects on the problem of human existence. "The dream of the mind creates a monster" (a work based on Francisco Goya's "Capriccios" series) is a metaphor for a tyrant. The leader of a totalitarian regime is depicted as a giant rhinoceros walking on corpses.