>>A faculty member from the Academy of Fine Arts in Gdańsk shared their creative processes, graphic research, and international professional career with fourth-year students as part of the “Artist’s Workshop” course.
Ukrainian artist Vasyl Savchenko, a professor and researcher at the Academy of Fine Arts in Gdańsk (Poland), has shared his career path, creative processes, and professional experience with fourth-year Fine Arts students at ADEMA, as part of the “Artist’s Workshop” course.
The session allowed students to gain direct insight into the practice of an artist with an extensive international career and to learn about both his working methodology and the key conceptual and technical lines that shape his artistic output.
In the days leading up to the event, Savchenko also worked on her own art at the ADEMA facilities, fostering interaction with students and an exchange of ideas regarding creative processes. During the academic session, she focused in particular on the materials, supports, and techniques that define her distinctive graphic and pictorial language, while also discussing her experience in the international exhibition circuit and her teaching and research work at the Academy of Fine Arts in Gdańsk.
Born in Lviv, Ukraine, in 1994, Savchenko has a background in painting and the graphic arts. His career encompasses over a hundred exhibitions, projects, artist residencies, and symposiums across Europe, Asia, and the United States. Furthermore, his work is held in public and private collections in countries such as the United States, China, Japan, Italy, Poland, Ukraine, and Türkiye.
>> Drawing as a territory of research
A central theme of the presentation was the artist’s conception of drawing as a space for artistic inquiry. Charcoal plays a fundamental role in her output, though her work transcends its conventional use as a graphic tool. Through processes involving resin-varnish fixing, natural pigments, and various surface treatments, Savchenko transforms the material into an element with qualities akin to painting.
This experimentation allows him to explore the boundaries between drawing and painting and to delve into the relationships between material, gesture, and representation.
His research extends equally to printmaking, where she combines traditional techniques—such as etching, mezzotint, drypoint, screen printing, and monotype—with contemporary tools and processes. This interplay between analog techniques and new technologies also forms one of the areas linked to her teaching and research activities in Gdańsk.
>> Direct contact with professional practice
Throughout the session, Savchenko demonstrated how the choice of materials, supports, and technical procedures can be integral to the conceptualization of a work, rather than being limited merely to its execution. The session thus offered students insight into an artistic practice situated at the intersection of creation, teaching, and research.
The “Artist’s Workshop” course is designed as a space for immersion in contemporary creative processes through the participation of national and international artists. Direct contact with active professionals allows students to learn about real working methodologies, broaden their range of references, and compare their own artistic research and production processes.
Vasyl Savchenko’s participation aligns with this educational approach, offering a perspective in which tradition and technology, drawing and painting, graphic work, and contemporary experimentation converge to forge a distinctive artistic language.