A leading representative of contemporary Ukrainian art and one of the most prominent artists in the international context of digital and media art.
EDUCATION
Graduated from the Odesa State Academy of Civil Engineering and Architecture with a Master’s degree in Architecture.
PRACTICE
Stepan Ryabchenko’s artistic practice encompasses digital art, conceptual architecture, sculpture, light installations, photography, and graphics, forming a holistic visual mythology — worlds inhabited by imaginary beings, fictional forms of life, and metaphysical landscapes governed by internal laws created by the artist himself. As noted by art historian Galyna Sklyarenko:"Stepan Ryabchenko’s artistic practice stands among the phenomena that shape the field of contemporary art, determining its scale and direction. The aesthetics of new media — the domain in which he works — not only open up new dimensions of creativity but also call for particular qualities: imagination, a spatial sensibility, and those 'metamorphoses of the image' that make visible uncanny links between the real and the virtual, the authentic and the imagined. Unsurprisingly, one of the artist’s central themes is the idea of a ‘new nature’, where myths and inventions, perceptions of the visible world, and other unexpected projections converge."
AWARDS AND RECOGNITIONS
Among Stepan Ryabchenko’s key distinctions are the Art-Act Prize at the First All-Ukrainian Triennial of Abstract Art (2010), the Kyiv Sculpture Project Prize (2012), inclusion in Forbes Ukraine’s “30 Under 30” ranking (2015), first prize in the international competition for the sculptural symbol of Odesa Airport (2019), and his selection as a finalist in the prestigious Tampa International Airport Public Art Project (USA, 2020), which brings together leading artists from around the world to create permanent public art installations at one of the most innovative airports in the United States. That same year, he became the first artist ever invited to represent Ukraine at the Changwon Sculpture Biennale in South Korea. In 2021, he was named among the world’s top 15 digital artists by the British platform Electric Artefacts. In 2022, he received the Mykhailo Bozhiy Prize in the category of Monumental Art, and in July 2025, he was elected a corresponding member of the Department of Fine Arts of the National Academy of Arts of Ukraine — becoming the youngest member of the current Academy and its only representative from Odesa.
EXHIBITIONS
Stepan Ryabchenko's works have been presented at leading art institutions in Ukraine, including the PinchukArtCentre, Mystetskyi Arsenal, National Art Museum of Ukraine, Ukrainian House, Odesa Museum of Western and Eastern Art, Museum of Contemporary Art of Odesa, M17 Contemporary Art Center, Modern Art Research Institute, and the YermilovCentre.Among his international exhibition projects are presentations at the MAXXI — National Museum of 21st Century Arts (Rome), Albertina Modern (Vienna), Art & History Museum (Brussels), Ludwig Museum (Budapest), Saatchi Gallery (London), Ars Electronica Center (Linz), Moderna Galerija (Ljubljana), Danubiana Meulensteen Art Museum (Bratislava), Museum of Contemporary Art (Zagreb), and the Ukrainian Institute of America (New York).