Mykola Babak

Mykola Babak was born in Voronyntsi, Cherkasy Oblast. In 1971 he finished Melnyky Secondary School. From 1972 till 1972 he served in the Soviet Army. After demobilization he worked as a designer at Cherkasy "Azot" Company and at Cherkasy Combine of art-advertisement. From 1979 till 1985 together with a group of other artists he managed monumental projects (paintings, mosaics, stained-glass windows) in the far-east of Russia. In 1986 Mykola Babak came back to Ukraine.

Babak is the member of National Union of Artists of Ukraine (from 1990), Merited Artist of Ukraine (2004), Shevchenko National Prize Laureate (2010), People's Artist of Ukraine (2016). His works are at the National Art Museum of Ukraine, Ministry of Culture and Tourism of Ukraine, private collections. Babak lives and works in Cherkasy. Since 2014 he has been working with Evgene Matveev in the BM Babak-Matveev art tandem. In 2017, Mykola Babak organized and headed the charitable foundation of the same name to implement more effective activities to preserve the Ukrainian cultural heritage and support contemporary art (Mykola Babak Foundation Site)..

Mykola Babak's "Your children, Ukraine", national Ukrainian project at the 51st Venice Biennale (2005)

Babak's artistic works are made in the techniques of hyperreality, neo-expressionism, transavantgarde, assemblage.[2] The artist adheres to the stylistic principles of post-avantgarde. He is known for his national project "Your children, Ukraine" at the 51st Venice Biennale (2005). Since 2014 Mykola Babak has been working with Evgene Matveev under the name Art-tandem BM Babak-Matveev.[3]

2021 "13 rooms COVID" Project (within the art tandem BM Babak-Matveev), Museum of Contemporary Art Korsakov, Lutsk

2021 "Intermission", 17th International Exhibition of Contemporary Art (within the art tandem BM Babak-Matveev), Cherkasy Art Museum

2020 "Dialogues", 10th International Exhibition of Contemporary Art (within the art tandem BM Babak-Matveev), Cherkasy Art Museum

2020 "Art in the Time of Plague", Virtual Exhibition[4]

2018 "Revelations", Alexandre Gertsman Contemporary Art Gallery, New York[5]

2017 "The Multidimensional Context of Art Beyond Post-Soviet Borders", Alexandre Gertsman Contemporary Art Gallery, New-York[6]

2016 "Hryhoriy Shevchenko. Types and views of Ukraine, photos and postcards of the late XIX - early XX centuries." (from Mykola Babak’s private collection), Taras Shevchenko Museum, Kaniv

2015 “The Central Dnipro River Region Folk Icon of the 18th – 20th c.(from Mykola Babak’s private collection)”, Art Museum, Cherkasy

2013 “IV Fine Art Ukraine”, Art-Arsenal, Kyiv

2006 Personal exhibition “Celestial Chronicle”, The National Art Museum of Ukraine, Kyiv[7]

2005 National Project “Your Children, Ukraine” at the 51st Venice Biennale[8]

2005 Project “Your Children, Ukraine”, Diploma and 1-st Prize, The Gallery of the National Ukrainian Artist Trade Union, Kyiv

2004 “Ukrainian Rural Photo (from Mykola Babak’s private collection)” V International Photobiennale, Moscow Museum of Modern Art, Moscow[9]

2003 “The Ukrainian Retrospective”, I Kyiv Photobiennale, Art Foundation Gallery, Kyiv

2002 “The Ukrainian World of Painting”, Beijing

2000 “Collection of Axiomatic”, The Gallery of the National Ukrainian Artist Trade Union, Kyiv

1999 Personal Exhibition “Telluris”, The National Art Museum of Ukraine, Kyiv

1993 “People with People”, Poland

In 1990 Babak began to collect Ukrainian folk art. He has collections of folk icons of the 18th - 20th centuries,[10] folk naïve paintings, folk photos and household items of the Central Upper Dnieper River Region. The collection of folk icons is considered to be the most outstanding while it represents the iconography of Taras Shevchenko's land where the basis of the Ukrainian nation, language and culture was formed.

• Venice Biennale 2005, FRIEZE
• Berrebi, S. (2008). Jacques Rancière: aesthetics is politics. Art & Research
• Folk icons from Mykola Babak’s collection at the Grand Antiques Salon in Kyiv
• Fedoruk,O. Ending Silence, An Introduction to the History of Modern Ukrainian Art