About Page

Artist Statement

I paint for the satisfaction of the created work. It is important for me that my audience, in a very simple, perhaps old-fashioned way, gets pure enjoyment and pleasure from viewing and living with my paintings. This speaks to the power of art to transcend the troubles and realities of life and offer an alternate vision.

When I was a young boy, I already knew in a childish, formless way what excited me and gave me a feeling of intense joy and pleasure. Not yet old enough to really understand, I looked at the world around me and was captivated in a way that I vividly remember but find hard to describe. The colors, the compositions of natures beauty, the faces on bodies, the light and the dark, all touched me, and I knew even then that a passion for creating art was implanted.

I was born in the Ukrainian city of Zhitomir in the former Soviet Union. My father was killed in World War II when I was two years old. After that, my family kept moving to stay one step ahead of the Nazis. Though my early years were filled with loss and hardship, I was able to discover the joy of drawing and painting. I spent each evening in our tiny kitchen, looking at the reproductions in the few art books my family owned. My local art museum also served as a sort of informal school which acquainted my eye with the beauty of oil on canvas. I was also drawn to create studies from nature and spent many days walking through the nearby woods, parks, and streets observing the awesome beauty and grandeur that surrounded my town. A sensitivity to color, which I developed quickly, was formed against this backdrop.

Eventually, I enrolled at the local School of Fine Arts which offerred a rigorous and disciplined training. At that time, the Soviet approach to art and culture was purely conservative. Painting, like all the other arts, was expected to support and glorify the communist party line. Though offensive to me, I was expected to work in this tradition. It was no surprise then that my first exhibition of portraits, landscapes, and what later came to be labeled as imaginary expressionism was quickly censured, and more than half of the paintings were removed before the public was allowed in.

One of my professors thought that he was insulting me by calling these works twisted modernism and accusing me of following Western (as opposed to national, Soviet) influences. Ironically, the paintings were nothing more but expressive realism, with their emphasis on the interior psyche of the model. The landscapes were more Impressionist than anything else, with their free and vigorous brush strokes. Whatever political and cultural treason they thought I was displaying - clearly a mirror of their own paranoia.

My arrival in the United States in 1980 was more than a liberation of the body but an exhilarating freeing of my potential. Leaving behind the grinding pressure under which I desperately tried to remain true to my own vision, I was now able to fully embrace this newfound opportunity. The seeds that were germinating internally for so long flourished and flowered into my current paintings; the female form, lush and sumptuous, alone or in intricate organic primordial clusters, the tottering, shaky little villages evoking bittersweet nostalgia of childhood, and the forest of birch trees which breathe, sway and beckon. These myriad variations of forms, seemingly unconnected, are chained together by an unabashed romanticism and a commitment to extracting the most expression possible from a fluid line.

I have exhibited widely across the United States and Europe, and am a frequent contributor to Art Expos around the world. I have received many first place awards in juried art shows both nationally and worldwide, along with a number of honors in regards to my overall contribution to contemporary painting. My work can be found in numerous private collections, corporations, as well as museums. Frequently anthologized in such volumes as International Contemporary Masters, Famous: 120 Contemporary Artists, Portraits dArtistes (Editions Regards, 2007), I have been featured in a lavish monograph, "Leon Oks: Dreamscape", published by World of Art in 2007(and co-written by Petru Russu). I live and teach in the Chicago area where I have a large circle of devoted students and friends.

Selected Publications:2007: Dreamscape, about Leon Oks and his work publication by WOA,England.2007: Famous, Selected contemporary artists by World of Art, London, England2007: The Artist Contact, Contemporary Global Art 2007 Masters of Today Series, Selected contemporary artists by World of Art, London, England.2006: Art, Painters and Sculptures from XV to XXI century published by REGARDS, France.

Numerous articles written in various magazines and newspapers.

Sample of Leon's Work

Browse the full collection at the gallery.

Exhibitions

7/11/2009	Laguna Beach, CA Rhythm (solo show)
February	Latino Art Museum. Pomona, CA International Art Show
02/28/08	Javits Convention Center NY Artexpo New York 2008
03/01/2007	New York, Javits Convention Center ARTEXPO New York SOLO Booth
8/11/2006	Museum of the Americas INTERNATIONAL SUMMER EXHIBITION 2006
01/14/2006	Latino Art Museum and Museum of the Americas INTERNATIONAL ARTISTS EXHIBITION
1962-1978	Russia, Ukraine National, Republic and Local Fine Art Exhibits, Juried Art Shows
12/1999	Sherman Gallery, Chicago, IL Group Exhibit
02/1999	Sherman Gallery, Chicago, IL Art From the Heart Group Show
June, 1999	Sherman Gallery, Chicago, IL Freedom of Expression Solo Show,
1999/2000	Maniscalco Studio Gallery, Detroit, MI Imaginary Expressionism
1999/2000	Gold Fish Gallery, Florida Show in Gold Fish Gallery
03/24/2000	Sherman Gallery, Downtown Chicago, Illinois Two Person Show
2000/2001	Galena, IL Solo The Palette & Chisel Gallery
1999/2000	Zarem/Golde ORT Institute, Chicago, IL An International Juried Art Competition VISION 1999 and VISION 2000
1999/2000	School of the Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago, IL Chicago Art Open 1999 and 2000 sponsored by Chicago Artists Coalition
02/2001	Artistic Expressions Fine Art Gallery Wheeling, Il Solo Imaginary Expressionism
May, 2002	Arlington Heights, IL Arlington Gallery Show
1995-2002	Skokie Heritage Museum, Illinois Annual Juried Art Show
04/11/2002	University Club of Chicago TWELFTH FLOOR GALLERY, Chicago, IL Solo Show
03/13/2002	New York, NY Show, Limner Gallery
08/09/2002	New York, NY Show, Limner Gallery
10/12/2002	Florida Show in Schacknow Museum of Fine Arts
01/30/2002	Light Of The Word Mission Gallery, Techny IL Solo Show
05/29/2003	Gallery Mornea, Evanston, Illinois Visualizing Expression
08/06/2003	Willa Terrace Decorative Arts Museum, Milwaukee, WI Solo Show
10/10/2003	511 West 25th Street, Chelsea, New York, NY Show in Amsterdam Whitney International Fine Art Gallery
12/03/2003	New York, NY Show, Limner Gallery
12/06/2003	Florence, Italy International Art Show Biennale Internazionale dellArte Contemporanea
01/09/2004	Latin American Art Museum, Florida SOLO SHOW
04/05/2004	TZ Studio and Gallery, Chicago Illinois MY World Solo
04/03/2004	FUENDETODOS Aragon, Spain International Art Show "TRIBUTE TO FRANCISCO DE GOYA"
06/18/2004	Barcelona, Spain International Art Show "TRIBUTE TO SALVADOR DALI
06/11/2004	Latin American Art Museum, Florida International summer Art Show
08/20/2004	Copenhagen , Denmark International Art Show Crisolart Galleries
09/10/2004	Museum of the Americas, Florida International Art Show ENCOUNTERS
01/14/2005	Barcelona, Spain International Exhibition Centennial Don Quixote De La Mancha
11/05/2004	AAI GALLERY, Vienna, Austria International Art Show
05/10/2005	Copenhagen, Denmark International Artists in Copenhagen
May, 2005	Museum of the Americas, Miami, Florida International Art Show MAY SALON
10/14/2005	Barcelona, Spain International Art Show HISPANIC MONTH
12/02/2005	Belgium LINEART 2005 GENT, INTERNATIONAL ART FAIR
01/14/2006	Latino Art Museum International Artists Exhibition
10/22/2006	American Legion Memorial Civic Dreamscape
08/12/2006	Museum of the Americas International Summer Exhibition