Yurii Solomko is a Ukrainian artist, photographer, creator of objects and installations, and one of the representatives of the “New Wave” of Ukrainian art. He was born in 1962 in Crimea. In 1992, he graduated from the Kyiv State Art Institute. From 1990 to 1994, he was a participant in the legendary art collective “Paris Commune,” which played an important role in shaping contemporary Ukrainian art.

Since the late 1980s, he has been actively participating in exhibition activities in Ukraine and abroad. Since 1991, he has been working on the long-term project “Artistic Cartography,” which became one of the key directions of his artistic work and brought the artist international recognition. The main themes of the artist’s work are identity, geography, borders, memory, the cultural and political map of the world, and the interconnection of personal and collective experience.

Central to Yurii Solomko’s artistic work is the exploration of space, territory, and the mechanisms of collective memory formation. The artist’s most renowned series is created based on geographical maps, which he uses not as a navigation tool but as a cultural and symbolic carrier of information. Reimagining maps as an artistic medium, the artist creates multilayered images where geographical boundaries transform into metaphors for historical processes, human migrations, political transformations, and personal experiences. His works explore the relationship between real and imagined geography, between official history and individual memory. Through the combination of cartography, painting, and a conceptual approach, Solomko’s artistic work has become one of the most recognizable practices in contemporary Ukrainian art.

Selected Solo Exhibitions

2026 — “Flower Garden,” Lavra Gallery
2019 — “Above the Wall,” ArtNext Gallery, New York, USA.

Selected Group Exhibitions

2013 — “Contemporary Ukrainian Artists,” Saatchi Gallery, London, United Kingdom.
2013 — “Orientation on the Ground,” National Art Museum of Ukraine, Kyiv, Ukraine.
2012 — “Myth. Ukrainian Baroque,” National Art Museum of Ukraine, Kyiv, Ukraine.
2011 — “Space Odyssey,” Mystetskyi Arsenal, Kyiv, Ukraine.
2011 — “The Independents,” Mystetskyi Arsenal, Kyiv, Ukraine.
2011 — “20 Years of Presence,” Institute of Contemporary Art Problems, Kyiv, Ukraine.
2009 — “Ukrainian New Wave,” National Art Museum of Ukraine, Kyiv, Ukraine.
2008 — “Ukrainian Painting,” White Box, New York, USA.

The artist’s works have been presented at auctions by Sotheby’s, Phillips de Pury & Company, Dorotheum, and “Golden Section.”

Yuriy Solomko’s works are held in the collection of the National Art Museum of Ukraine (Kyiv), Henie Onstad Kunstsenter (Oslo, Norway), as well as in numerous private collections in Europe, the USA, and other countries around the world.