Iryna Griffith

Iryna Griffith, BA Born in Ukraine, 1956 - Graphic Design College in Kiev After graduating, commissioned by officials of the Communist Party to paint propaganda art, such as pictures of Lenin, workers revolutionary scenes. In private, she painted abstract /surreal painting, could not exhibit or sell, due to government restrictions on artists and subjects. In 1986, the year of Perestroika, she opened her own stained glass company, designing and building windows for schools, government departments and private customers.   "Since my childhood I have been troubled by the thought that the world is not perfect and that we cannot improve it unless we improve ourselves – the INNER SELF. The world in my paintings is stripped of its materialistic values, and the characters suggest people with their identities removed - down to the basic instincts to express the pain of our discontent, the complicity of emotions, limitations of our minds, the inability to recognise and appreciate each other." A recent exhibition at Slade School of Art has added new collectors to her paintings

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