Show 09-10

Tanya Ilyakhova was born and raised in Novgorod-Volynskiy, a small ancient town in the Northwest Ukraine. At the age of eleven Tanya was admitted to the exclusive Art School for the Gifted Children of the Ukraine, the only school of its kind that existed in the 16 republics of the former Soviet Union back then and was often referred to in the Soviet press as the "Nation's Gold Fund".

At the age of eighteen Tanya graduated from the Art School with the highest of honors and was admitted to the five-year program of the prestigious National Academy of Arts of the Ukraine. At twenty-three, upon graduation from the National Academy of Arts of the Ukraine, Tanya was granted a special permission to portrait Lenin. At that time in the Soviet Union, this was the highest recognition of the artist's talent and skills. (During the Soviet regime only selected artist were permitted to portrait the communist party leaders. This rule was particularly jealously observed in regard to Lenin.)

In the early 1990s Tanya developed her own unique paining style that combined classic painting technique of fine arts and ancient technique of batik. Her unique paintings on religious themes become a new face of the contemporary iconography. The Vatican obtained nearly 20 of these works.

Tanya Ilyakhova participated in many solo and group shows. Some of them are: 1995 - the Triptych Gallery (Kiev, Ukraine), 1997 - L-Gallery (Kiev, Ukraine), 1999 - Kunstnertorvet Gallery (Oslo, Norway), 2000, 2001 - Gallery at the National Artists Guild (Kiev, Ukraine), 2001 - Ukrainian Home Gallery (Kiev, Ukraine), 2001 - Lada Gallery (Kiev, Ukraine), 2001 - Gallery at the Kievo-Pecherskaya Lavra, 2004 - Art Blues Gallery (Kiev, Ukraine), G-Gallery (Kiev, Ukraine), and many others. Nine of her works feature permanent collection of the Wayart Gallery (Moscow, Russia) and seven in the permanent collection of the State Cultural Museum Fund of the Ukraine.

Today, Tanya Ilyakhova is a prominent member of the Ukrainian National Artists Guild and a recipient of the Grand Prix of Art Festival in Kosovo (2002). In 2001 the National Artist's Guild of the Ukraine published a book featuring and honoring the best Ukrainian Artists of the decade entitled "The Ukrainian National Artists Guild 1991-2001". Tanya's painting graces the front cover.

More than 500 of her paintings were sold all over the world. They are featured in museums, galleries, churches, official offices and private collections in England, France, Greece, Hungary, Italy, Norway, Ukraine, Russia, India, Australia, Canada and the US. Tanya's clients list includes the Kiev Patriarchate, the Kiev School of Theology, the Norwegian Embassy in the Ukraine, the State Cultural Museum Fund of the Ukraine, the Ministry of Culture of the Ukraine, the Ministry of Defense of the Ukraine, and the Office of the President of "Kiev-star" (the largest mobile/Internet provider in the Ukraine). Among private collectors are the President of the Ukraine, Victor Yushchenko, and a well-known British writer and journalist James Meek.