Born in Donet’sk, Ukraine in 1961, Andrei was self-motivated to paint and draw from a young age. His parents recognized his talent as being one of exceptional caliber and therefore encouraged him to pursue fine art for the rest of his life. After high school Andrei was accepted into the Lugansk State School of Fine Art for specialized art undergraduate studies. He then went on to attend the prestigious IIya Repin Leningrad Institute for Painting, Sculpture and Architecture (now called the Imperial Academy of Arts) in St. Petersburg, Russia. There his professor, master artist Evsey Moiseenko, became his mentor and was one of his last protégées. Andrei earned his Master's degree in 1989, graduating with honors. With the end of the Soviet Union, Russia's borders became open to the rest of the world and Andrei among many of his peers decided to visit the United States to seek out new opportunities. Soon afterwards he decided to relocate with his family and began establishing himself in New York City. Andrei's early work reflected themes of harsh Soviet conditions through the use of heavy textures, dark colors and somber subjects. Upon moving to the United States his work took a new direction that featured bright colors, happy subjects and straight, constructive use of lines. Andrei has embedded his use of line into all of his artwork and has coined this technique as “Fine Line.” His straight, constructive use of line embodies his classical training in art in every way. In the academy, Andrei was revered as a master of composition where most artists were limited to only a few elements of composition in their artwork, Protsouk incorporated all of the elements of composition in his. This captivates the viewer's eyes which are drawn to move around his canvases so that every time anyone looks at his art, the unique composition doesn’t make you see his painting the same way twice. Protsouk, today, has come a long way from Soviet Russia. He finds inspiration in his environment in all the modern societal activities which can be seen in his paintings. His peer artist and great friend Gennadii Gogoliuk has even expressed his artwork as “Americana Eroticism,” the celebration of love and life in a free American society and enjoying some of life’s most simple pleasures.

ANDREI PROTSOUK