Awareness: Glib Franko

Today I will be talking about an upcoming artist name Glib Franko. Glib is a Ukrainian artist and has been making art since he was young. Both of his parents were artist and surrounded him with their work, like his father's watercolors, as he was growing up. As a young man he studied at several premier art institutions in Ukraine, such as the Kosiv Institute for Decorative arts, the Department of Monumental Painting, and the National Academy of Fine Arts in Kyiv. Franko's art borders between expressionist and abstraction, and he uses many colors as well as a number of different painting mediums. He paints primarily botanical still lives, but does paint some portraits and landscapes. Franko now exhibits his work all over the world and has traveled throughout Europe and Asia, as well as the United States.

[Rose], Oil on Linen Canvas, 2024

This Painting, [Rose], exhibits some of the common aspects of Franko's paintings, the figures are simplified, and blocked out by color, creating a very simplified subject. The colors are also bright and have lots of contrast because of the sharp lines and borders between them. Franko also creates a more rough and unfinished feel with the gaps between strokes and the incomplete feel of the background. I really like the sharpness of the painting as well as the colors, and I think the way he portrays the flowers contributes to the overall emotion of the painting. I also like how it feels like some of the flower shapes surrounding the central red figure feel like echoes or shadows of the middle, and give an otherwise very flat painting more depth.

My Flowers Bright, Oil on Canvas, 2024

This painting leans more towards the abstract side of Franko's art, and even incorporates surrealist aspects in the eyes on the flowers. I really like the more flowing and natural shapes in this painting when compared to the more sharp and harsh lines in the other. I also really like how the colors, while still blocked out, have more of a flow into each other on the figure, while still having a sharper contrast around the border and on the flowers. This piece also has a lot more movement and life to it than the other, which can be seen in the more organic shapes of the flower but also in the bugs and eyes that are incorporated as well.