Lydia Bodnar-Balahutrak
American
American, b. 20th c.
Lydia Bodnar-Balahutrak is a Houston, Texas-based fine artist whose multi-faceted work combines text and image and is influenced by her Ukrainian heritage. Lydia Bodnar-Balahutrak was born in Cleveland, Ohio, completed her undergraduate art studies at Kent State University, and, in 1977, received her Master of Fine Arts degree in painting from George Washington University, Washington, D.C. That year she moved to Houston with her husband Michael, where she continues to live and work. In 1985 Bodnar-Balahutrak was awarded a grant to participate in an international art symposium in La Napoule, France, the first of several artist invitations and residencies in Europe. In spring 1991, an IREX grant enabled her to travel to Ukraine, her parents’ ancestral homeland, for the first time. She was a guest lecturer at the L’viv Academy of Art. In 1993, she participated in a two-month international artists’ symposium held in Ukraine, and received a Creative Artist Program Award in Visual Art from the Cultural Arts Council of Houston for her artwork that resulted from that residency. Two years later she was a visiting artist at the Art Academy of Kyiv, and her 1996 trip included a tour of the Chornobyl Zone, site of the 1986 nuclear plant explosion. In 2006, commemorating the 20-year anniversary of the Chornobyl cataclysm, her work was exhibited in a solo show, titled “Chornobyl”, at the Art Gallery of the University of Houston/Clear Lake. In 2010-11, selected works from her ongoing series “Hide and Seek” have been shown in solo exhibitions at Nau-Haus Art Space and the College of the Mainland Art Gallery, and at the Arkansas Arts Center and the Art Car Museum. The Pearl Fincher Museum of Fine Arts featured her work in a 2012 solo show titled “Thresholds”. The artist has participated in several national and international exhibitions and her work can be found in museum and private collections. Her current mixed media paintings and drawings continue to explore collage, text, and figuration. A monograph focusing on her art from 1979-2001 was published in 2005. Since 1977, she has taught painting and drawing at The University of Houston at Clear Lake and HSPVA, and is currently on the faculty of the Glassell School of Art, MFAH.
Artist's statement:
In 1991 an IREX grant enabled me to travel to my ancestral homeland of Ukraine for the first time. This trip opened my eyes and soul to a long-suffering yet hopeful people, to a land beautiful but ravaged by the Soviet system. It was a turning point in my creative work and world view. A concern with the human condition – always at the heart of my art – took new form and urgency. Subsequent trips to Ukraine included a 1996 visit to the Chornobyl Zone, which left a lasting impression of nature’s power of reclamation and healing. Despite everything, even in the face of deception, destruction and loss, I saw nature regenerating life and creating anew. The curtains of trees, tangled branches, vines, nests, and animals enacting fable-like parables have become recurring motifs in my work. Like many others, I have grown up in two cultures: the hereditary culture passed on and nurtured by my displaced post-World War II immigrant family; and the culture of the country in which I was born and raised, where I continue to live and work. In my creative endeavors I strive to share my own particular cultural mix and, in so doing, touch the common core of all humanity. Whether solemn or comical, metaphoric or naturalistic, my art is meant to evoke a longing, express wonder and invite discourse. My work begins with collecting newspaper and magazine articles, treasured mementos, and bits of cultural artifacts that address specific themes I wish to explore in more depth. I center my work around meaningful historic and current events. Selecting items gathered from various documentary sources, I arrange them in a sort of self-perpetuating dialogue, then collage them onto canvas, wood, or paper. Imagery evolves by adding and subtracting elements of found text - by painting, drawing, veiling, and scraping with oil, charcoal, chalks and wax. At the same time, I examine the nature of print media, how information is disseminated, what is revealed and what is concealed. I see how narratives can be created, implied, hidden, disguised. My ongoing process of layering and abrading words, images, and various ephemera reflect my deep interest in how we come to know history - how experiences submerge, resurface, and unravel over time.
Source: lydiabodnerbalahutrak.com
American
American, b. 20th c.
Lydia Bodnar-Balahutrak is a Houston, Texas-based fine artist whose multi-faceted work combines text and image and is influenced by her Ukrainian heritage. Lydia Bodnar-Balahutrak was born in Cleveland, Ohio, completed her undergraduate art studies at Kent State University, and, in 1977, received her Master of Fine Arts degree in painting from George Washington University, Washington, D.C. That year she moved to Houston with her husband Michael, where she continues to live and work. In 1985 Bodnar-Balahutrak was awarded a grant to participate in an international art symposium in La Napoule, France, the first of several artist invitations and residencies in Europe. In spring 1991, an IREX grant enabled her to travel to Ukraine, her parents’ ancestral homeland, for the first time. She was a guest lecturer at the L’viv Academy of Art. In 1993, she participated in a two-month international artists’ symposium held in Ukraine, and received a Creative Artist Program Award in Visual Art from the Cultural Arts Council of Houston for her artwork that resulted from that residency. Two years later she was a visiting artist at the Art Academy of Kyiv, and her 1996 trip included a tour of the Chornobyl Zone, site of the 1986 nuclear plant explosion. In 2006, commemorating the 20-year anniversary of the Chornobyl cataclysm, her work was exhibited in a solo show, titled “Chornobyl”, at the Art Gallery of the University of Houston/Clear Lake. In 2010-11, selected works from her ongoing series “Hide and Seek” have been shown in solo exhibitions at Nau-Haus Art Space and the College of the Mainland Art Gallery, and at the Arkansas Arts Center and the Art Car Museum. The Pearl Fincher Museum of Fine Arts featured her work in a 2012 solo show titled “Thresholds”. The artist has participated in several national and international exhibitions and her work can be found in museum and private collections. Her current mixed media paintings and drawings continue to explore collage, text, and figuration. A monograph focusing on her art from 1979-2001 was published in 2005. Since 1977, she has taught painting and drawing at The University of Houston at Clear Lake and HSPVA, and is currently on the faculty of the Glassell School of Art, MFAH.
Artist's statement:
In 1991 an IREX grant enabled me to travel to my ancestral homeland of Ukraine for the first time. This trip opened my eyes and soul to a long-suffering yet hopeful people, to a land beautiful but ravaged by the Soviet system. It was a turning point in my creative work and world view. A concern with the human condition – always at the heart of my art – took new form and urgency. Subsequent trips to Ukraine included a 1996 visit to the Chornobyl Zone, which left a lasting impression of nature’s power of reclamation and healing. Despite everything, even in the face of deception, destruction and loss, I saw nature regenerating life and creating anew. The curtains of trees, tangled branches, vines, nests, and animals enacting fable-like parables have become recurring motifs in my work. Like many others, I have grown up in two cultures: the hereditary culture passed on and nurtured by my displaced post-World War II immigrant family; and the culture of the country in which I was born and raised, where I continue to live and work. In my creative endeavors I strive to share my own particular cultural mix and, in so doing, touch the common core of all humanity. Whether solemn or comical, metaphoric or naturalistic, my art is meant to evoke a longing, express wonder and invite discourse. My work begins with collecting newspaper and magazine articles, treasured mementos, and bits of cultural artifacts that address specific themes I wish to explore in more depth. I center my work around meaningful historic and current events. Selecting items gathered from various documentary sources, I arrange them in a sort of self-perpetuating dialogue, then collage them onto canvas, wood, or paper. Imagery evolves by adding and subtracting elements of found text - by painting, drawing, veiling, and scraping with oil, charcoal, chalks and wax. At the same time, I examine the nature of print media, how information is disseminated, what is revealed and what is concealed. I see how narratives can be created, implied, hidden, disguised. My ongoing process of layering and abrading words, images, and various ephemera reflect my deep interest in how we come to know history - how experiences submerge, resurface, and unravel over time.
Source: lydiabodnerbalahutrak.com
Artist Objects
Another Circle of Hell 2003.008.02
History Burning 2003.008.01
The Lunatic Child 2003.008.03
The One They Left Behind 2003.008.04
Artist Images