Vladislav Khalupsky

I was born in the Black Sea port of Odessa, where I was inspired by the sharp cliffs and the quiet sea to become a painter. I was very influenced by the Russian impressionist tradition, known as the 'Southern Russian School'. I emigrated from the Soviet Union to the United States in 1989, when I was 19 years old.

When I arrived in America, the pursuit of a career as an artist was a distant luxury to a young immigrant. I worked in many jobs in my youth, starting off from working at a dry cleaner to opening up my proprietary trading company on Wall Street.

In the not so distant past, I served a four-year sentence for insider trading. During my sentence, I had the time to revaluate my life and decided to go back to my spiritual roots. With new vigour, I decided to pursue a career as an artist.

I graduated from the Grekov Odessa Art School, the oldest art institution in Ukraine. This institution is known for producing leading Avant-Garde artists of the twentieth century, the likes of David Burliuk, Wassily Kandinsky and Leonid Pasternak and many others.

The origins of this institution were highly influenced by the French impressionist movement. The founders of the School were members of the so-called Southern Russian Wave, the main impressionist tradition in Russia.