Trained in classical art but shaped by the demands of the global visual industry, Ukrainian artist and scenographer Myroslav Duzinkevych bridges academic tradition with contemporary stage and screen design.
Born in western Ukraine’s Ivano-Frankivsk region, Duzinkevych graduated from the Taras Shevchenko State Art Secondary School and the National Academy of Fine Arts and Architecture in Kyiv, then built a career that moved from painting and work at the Oleksandr Dovzhenko Film Studio to major US productions and prestigious professional art associations in the US.
Today, Duzinkevych moves between film, scenography, spatial design, and his own painting practice. Renewed attention to his work followed his contribution to “Marty Supreme,” an A24 movie production that received nine Oscar nominations, including recognition for production design. His recent projects also include “A Complete Unknown” and “Sirens.”
Yet Duzinkevych insists that his story is not simply about Hollywood success. At the center of his thinking are Ukraine’s artistic tradition, professional discipline, international competition, and the place of Ukrainian artists within global culture.
“Ukraine gave me the foundation. America gave me scale”
Before relocating to the US shortly before the 2020 pandemic, Duzinkevych primarily worked as a painter.
“In Ukraine, I was fundamentally a studio artist – canvas, easel, classical painting,” he told Kyiv Post. “After moving to America, life introduced its own corrections: Film, interior design, large spaces, light, and architecture all became part of my work.”
According to him, Ukraine’s academic art school provided the essential foundation for large-scale international projects.
“If you master classical drawing and composition, it stays with you for life – whether you work in painting, cinema, or scenography,” he said.
In the US, Duzinkevych found himself inside the machinery of large studio productions for the first time – an environment defined by tight deadlines, teamwork, and extraordinary speed.
The turning point came while working on “A Complete Unknown,” starring actor Timothée Chalamet.
“That was the first time I truly felt the scale of the American film industry,” Duzinkevych said. “What impressed me most was the speed. On a single set, painters, carpenters, and installers are all working simultaneously.”
It’s a huge living machine where everything happens incredibly fast, but also with remarkable organization,” he added.
“In cinema, it’s not about self-expression. It’s about executing a task with maximum precision.”
At the same time, he describes “Sirens” as the most comfortable project he has worked on, largely because of the atmosphere at New York’s legendary Steiner Studios.
From an aesthetic perspective, however, he felt closest to “A Complete Unknown” and “Marty Supreme.” Both productions – featuring much of the same creative team, including actor Chalamet – were immersed in the visual atmosphere of the 1950s and 1960s, requiring extensive handcrafted textures, surfaces, signage, and decorative detail.
“In many ways, it was exactly what we were trained to do at the academy,” he said.
Hollywood as a school of discipline
Duzinkevych acknowledged that in the film industry, personal artistic ego inevitably takes a back seat.
“In cinema, it’s not about self-expression. It’s about executing a task with maximum precision,” he said. “But that system disciplines you as an artist.”
At the same time, working in film taught him to work faster, simplify processes, and maintain quality under pressure – lessons he now applies to his own painting.
“It’s an extremely competitive environment, but it constantly keeps you professionally sharp.”
He is currently developing a new series of portraits dedicated to family and close friends. After years spent inside large productions, Duzinkevych said he consciously returned to classical painting.
“I missed canvas, oil paints, even the smell of the studio. That’s where my love of art began in childhood,” he said.
Living between US, Ukraine
Duzinkevych’s move to the US coincided with the outbreak of COVID-19. He said the first years were psychologically difficult: closed borders, uncertainty, and the near-collapse of cultural life.
Still, he believes today’s world increasingly transcends geographical boundaries.
“Thanks to the internet and digital platforms, you can instantly stay connected to everything happening in Ukraine, speak with family, and continue working regardless of where you physically are,” he said.
The artist avoids making definitive statements about his own status abroad.
“I honestly don’t know whether this is emigration or a long-term assignment,” he said. “And maybe I don’t even think about it that way. Right now there’s simply too much work, too many ideas, too many creative tasks. I try to live according to the principle of ‘here and now.’”
Competition as a professional reality
Professional artistic associations also played a major role in Duzinkevych’s career development. He is a member of the Salmagundi Club, the International Guild of Realism, the American Artists Professional League, and the theatrical union USA Local 829.
According to him, such associations are central to building an artistic career in the US.
“Sometimes thousands of artists apply to a single exhibition, and only a few dozen works are selected,” he said. “It’s an extremely competitive environment, but it constantly keeps you professionally sharp.”
Duzinkevych believes Ukraine’s academic art tradition provides artists with the technical foundation needed to survive such intense competition.
Ukrainian art after the war
Since the start of Russia’s full-scale invasion, the international visibility of Ukrainian art has become especially important to him.
Duzinkevych argues that digital platforms, open calls, and international exhibitions have fundamentally changed how artists can enter global conversations.
“You can lock yourself in a studio and work, but today that alone is no longer enough,” he said.
In his view, Ukrainian cultural institutions need a far more ambitious international strategy.
“If Ukraine’s artistic community does not actively enter the international space – through art fairs, digital platforms, and major exhibitions – Ukrainian art risks remaining on the periphery,” he said.
At the same time, he believes the world is now paying closer attention to Ukrainian artists than ever before. In 2022, Duzinkevych held a solo exhibition in Manhattan and acknowledged that the war itself became one of the reasons for this increased visibility.
Dreams beyond the industry
Duzinkevych’s professional ambitions include working with the Metropolitan Opera.
What attracts him most is the scale and synthesis of artistic forms that opera allows: painting, architecture, music, light, and stage space.
“At the Met, there’s an opportunity to move beyond the limits of a canvas – to create painting within space itself, in dialogue with architecture and light,” he said.
“I’d like to create something that exists as an independent artistic world.”
Toward the end of the conversation, Duzinkevych speaks about another dream: Creating a large-scale installation project unconstrained by budgets or industrial requirements.
If there were no technical or financial limitations, he said he would create an immersive spatial installation combining painting, architecture, light, water, and new technologies.
“I’m deeply interested in the synthesis of different arts – space, light, large volumes,” he said. “I’d like to create something that exists as an independent artistic world.”
At the same time, Duzinkevych believes artificial intelligence will radically transform art in the coming years.
“Whoever truly learns how to work with artificial intelligence will open entirely new possibilities – not only for art, but for humanity itself,” he said. “And it’s already happening now.”