Sculptor Yevgen Godenko died tragically in Odesa

Renowned artist and sculptor Yevgen Godenko died in Odesa as a result of an accident. The artist, who dedicated his life to creating unique sculptural impressions of the human body, left a significant mark on the cultural life of the city and Ukraine.

Siyana Abueva Losinska reportedon the artist’s death.

According to her, the sculptor’s death was the result of an accident. Information regarding the location and time of the funeral service will be announced later.

Yevhen Godenko was born in 1951. He lived and worked in Odesa, where he received his art education, graduating from the Art and Graphic Design Department of the Pedagogical University. He also taught at the Construction Academy.

The artist devoted most of his creative life to sculpture. He worked in the field of life casting—the creation of casts of the human body. The artist himself described his works as an attempt to reveal what usually remains hidden from view. At the same time, he emphasized the documentary nature of his works and deliberately avoided artistic intervention in nature, transforming the creative process into a kind of “inaction.”

Over the years of his creative career, Godenko participated in numerous exhibitions and art projects. He collaborated with director Kira Muratova while working on the film “Three Stories.” In 2010, a short film titled “Shards of a Plaster Spring” was made about the artist.

In 2016, the KhudPromo Contemporary Art Gallery in Odesa hosted a joint exhibition by Yevgen Godenko and artist Dmytro Dulfan titled “Ethereal & Bodies.” Two years later, the artist participated in the project “More Than Sculpture” at the ART UKRAINE GALLERY in Kyiv and also led a workshop titled “Documenting the Body,” where he demonstrated the technique behind his famous casts.

In 2020, the sculptor’s works were featured in the group exhibition “The Right to the Nude” at the Odessa Museum of Western and Eastern Art. In 2022, he joined the “Pruzhina” project by Odesa artists, which took place at the gallery in the “Na Gretskiy” shopping center.

In recent years, the artist has continued to work actively. In 2023, at the “Dialogues” creative space, he and Yevhen Zapotochnyi presented the exhibition “Return to Beauty.”

Last year, Intent journalist Nata Chernetska visited the artist’s studio on Frantsuzsky Boulevard in Odesa, where he spoke about his fascination with the figures of Stepan Bandera and Andrey Sheptytsky, his exhibition activities, photography, and his search for new artistic forms.

Анна Бальчінос