Ukrainian artist Leonid Antonuk has passed away
On 31 January 2026, Ukrainian painter, Honoured Artist of Ukraine and member of the National Union of Artists of Ukraine Leonid Antonyuk passed away. This was reported by the Dnipro Art Museum.
The museum expressed its condolences to the artist's family, relatives, friends, and numerous students, emphasising that his name will forever remain in the history of fine arts in Dnipro and Ukraine. They noted that Antonuk's last large-scale art project was the anniversary retrospective exhibition "Sense of Time," which is currently on display in the exhibition halls of the Dnipro Art Museum.
According to representatives of the institution, this exhibition became an important final page in the artist's creative biography and allowed viewers to feel his artistic world more deeply — sincere, bright and filled with inner energy. The museum also emphasised that Leonid Antonuk belonged to a generation of artists who shaped the modern face of the Dnipro art school. His paintings were distinguished by their emotionality, expressiveness and plasticity of artistic language, and his many years of teaching became the basis for the formation of several generations of painters.
The staff of the Professional Art and Culture College also expressed their condolences on the death of the artist, emphasising that Antonuk's many years of work were inextricably linked to the history of the institution. They noted that he was not only a master painter with a recognisable artistic world, but also a teacher whose talent, exactingness and humanity made him a moral and professional guide for many students.
The date, time and place of the funeral ceremony will be announced later.
Leonid Antonuk graduated from the Dnipropetrovsk State Art School in 1970 and, in 1978, from the Kyiv State Art Institute, where he studied in the studio of Oleksiy Lopukhov. Over the years of his creative activity, he was awarded numerous professional awards, including a First Degree Diploma from the Union of Artists of Ukraine on the 175th anniversary of Taras Shevchenko's birth, the Mykhailo Panin City Prize, awards from the All-Ukrainian Triennial of Painting, as well as the Tetiana Yablonska and Hryhorii Cherniavsky Prizes.
In 2020, on the artist's 70th birthday, Leonid Antoniuk was awarded the Grand Gold Medal of the National Academy of Arts of Ukraine for his significant creative achievements and considerable contribution to teaching.
Leonid Antoniuk, Ukrainian artist, Dnipro Art Museum, painting, National Union of Artists of Ukraine
