Lytvyn Nina - Ukrainian artist

Nina Lytvyn (née Mokrii; born 30 November 1972 in Mlyniv, Rivne region) is a Ukrainian painter, designer and art teacher who lives and works in Kyiv. She works in the manner of post-impressionism and narrative abstraction, painting in oils using the alla prima technique. Her paintings are held in private collections in 16 countries.

Nina spent her childhood and youth in Mlyniv, a picturesque town on the banks of the Ikva River. There she finished secondary school and received her first art education at the Mlyniv Art School. In the artist's own words, it was the nature of her native land and her teachers, who instilled in her a feeling for colour, form and nuance, that shaped her creative path.

In 1997, Nina Lytvyn graduated from the State Academy of Light Industry of Ukraine (formerly the Kyiv Technological Institute of Light Industry, now the Kyiv National University of Technologies and Design) as a garment designer. During her studies she received diplomas for participation and prizes at international fashion design competitions. In 2000, she studied art history at the National Academy of Fine Arts and Architecture. She later turned to interior design, creating interior environments for private residential projects.

Design experience became the foundation of her professional career. In 2002, she worked for the publisher of Domus design magazine as an author of articles on interiors and as a photo shoot designer, and from 2017 to 2021 she worked as a designer at 31 Concept Gallery. Since 2023, she has taught drawing and painting at the 33Art studio.

The core of Nina Lytvyn's work is painting in the spirit of post-impressionism and narrative abstraction. She paints alla prima with vivid oil colours, broad brushstrokes and a palette knife, often on large-format canvases. Besides oils, she works in charcoal and watercolour and creates graphic works. Her main genres are mountain landscape, still life, floral compositions, plein-air studies, urban sketches and narrative abstraction. Each work is accompanied by the artist's own story — a short accompanying text in prose.

A central place in her work belongs to the series "Only Mountains", begun in 2018 after a hike in the Verkhovyna region, home to the highest peaks of the Carpathians. The paintings depict the Shpytsi and Rebra ridges, Mount Synytsia, Pip Ivan Marmaroskyi and the Carpathian highland meadows, conveying the sense of space, freedom and silence of the mountains. In 2025, she created the series "A Splash of Mediterranean Colours" and the cycle "Where the Earth Meets the Sky: Reflections of the Holy Land". The main idea of her work is the grandeur of nature and care for it, for the place where we live, and for the people around us.

Since 2020, Nina Lytvyn has regularly taken part in group exhibitions. Her works have been shown in the W'ART Foundation project "In Search of Harmony" at the Kyiv City History Museum (2020), the Great Lavra Bell Tower of the Kyiv Pechersk Lavra (2021, 2023) and the Museum of the Ukrainian Diaspora (2021), as well as at the Artist's House in Kyiv (2020, 2021), the Ukrainian House (2023), the Museum of the Hetmanate and the Pavlo Tychyna Museum (2025). In 2022, her painting "Surfer Girl" was presented at exhibitions of Ukrainian artists in London.

Since 2023, the artist has held more than eight solo exhibitions in Kyiv, including "Spring, Autumn, Winter and Summer" (MODI Art & Wine Gallery, 2023), "Earthly Colours" (2024), "A Moment Before Spring" (2025), "Solar Wind" (2025), "Where the Earth Meets the Sky" (ANNCO Gallery, 2025), "The Mountains Are Calling" (Maria Zankovetska Museum, 2026) and "Only Mountains" (MODI Art & Wine Gallery, 2026). Her works "Carpathian Molfar", "Trembita" and "Flight" were selected by jury for the final exhibitions "Heritage in Myths and Forms" and "Pulse of the Nation: Dance and Music" at the Maria Zankovetska Museum (2025).

Nina Lytvyn is a laureate of a number of international art competitions. At the Golden Time competition (London, 2020), three paintings from the "Only Mountains" series won first and two second places, and in 2021 she received a second-place diploma at the Golden Time Grand Final. She has also been awarded diplomas at the international competitions TOTAFEST 2021 (two first places), Vienna Toronto 2021 (first and two second places) and Wonder Fest Georgia 2021 (second and two third places), and won the 2nd Prize of the International Fine Arts Competition "Renaissance" in the category "Painting. Still Life". Her painting "Carpathians. Mount Synytsia Before the Rain" (2019) took part in the international selection for the Luxembourg Art Prize of La Pinacothèque.

The artist takes part in charity projects: her painting "Surfer Girl" was sold at auction, and the proceeds went towards buying a vehicle for the Armed Forces of Ukraine. Catalogues of Nina Lytvyn's works for 2018–2020 and 2021 have been published.

Nina Lytvyn's painting is about colour and mood: rich colour, energetic brushwork and a sense of light convey the emotions of what she has seen in nature and on her travels. Her works are held in private collections in Ukraine, the United Kingdom, Israel, Canada, the USA, Italy, Belgium, Luxembourg, Spain, France, Poland, the Czech Republic, Moldova, Iceland, Lithuania and Germany.