18.09.1956–present
Viktor Lyapkalo
Viktor Lyapkalo (b. 1956) comes from Ukhta; he studied at the Saratov Art School and at the Repin Institute in Leningrad, graduating from Boris Ugarov’s studio. He lives in St Petersburg and paints portraits, nudes and landscapes. His solo exhibitions have been held in St Petersburg and in Germany: in Marburg, Munich and Giessen.
Biography
In 1992 Viktor Lyapkalo had a solo exhibition in Marburg, Germany, and a year later a second one opened there. His painting “Marburg” is dated the same year, 1992. Then came exhibitions in Munich (1994) and Giessen (1995).
He was born on 18 September 1956 in Ukhta, in the Komi ASSR. In 1978 he graduated from the Saratov Art School, and in 1979 he entered the painting faculty of the Repin Institute of Painting, Sculpture and Architecture in Leningrad. His teachers there were Vladimir Gorb and Viktor Reikhet, and he completed the course in Boris Ugarov’s studio, qualifying as a painter and teacher. His diploma work was the painting “White Night”. His studies took eight years, until 1987.
That same year, 1987, he began to exhibit.
Since 1990 Lyapkalo has been a member of the Union of Artists, now the Saint Petersburg Union of Artists. He lives and works in St Petersburg and paints portraits, nudes and landscapes. The titles of his paintings show, I think, that most often he paints particular people and calls them by name: “Olya” (1987), “Valya” (1991), “Tanya” (1995), “Natasha” (1999), “Sashenka” (2004), “Petrovich” and “Gosha and Yerofeich” (1993). Beside them stand titles that name a mood or a genre scene: “Melancholy” (1989), “After the Bathhouse” (1993), “A Glass of Water” (1998), “By the Samovar” and “Family Portrait” (2000), “Spring” (2002), “The Choice” (2004), “The Marquis Has Returned” and “Autumn of Life” (2005), “Summer Mood” (2007), “Image of a Woman” and “The Concert Is Over” (2008), “Dreams of Summer” (2011).
In St Petersburg his solo exhibitions followed almost one after another: in 1996, 1997, 1998 and 1999, then in 2002, 2004, 2006 and 2009. He has taken part in exhibitions of the Saint Petersburg Union of Artists, among them the autumn exhibition of 2005 and the spring exhibition of 2008, and in 2012 his works were included in the catalogue “Petersburg Secession”. In 1997 the newspaper Smena published an article about him by O. Krylova, “Portrait of a Nude, in an Interior and Without”, and in 2009 the publication “Viktor Lyapkalo” appeared. Several pages are devoted to him in S. Ivanov’s book “Unknown Socialist Realism: The Leningrad School” (2007).
Lyapkalo’s works are in museums and private collections in Russia, Germany, the Netherlands, Belgium, the United States and other countries.
Profile notes