The Ukrainian artist Sergey Kirnitskiy is one of the best-known illustrators currently working in the area of small-scale engravings for modern icons and bookplates; many of his clients return regularly with new commissions, and limited editions of his are eagerly collected.

He grew up in Vinnytsia in the west of Ukraine, and from 1986 to 1990 studied at Vinnytsia Art School, going on to specialise in theatre and cinema design in Odessa. In 1995, while working as a set designer at the Vinnytsia Theatre, he met the artist and engraver David Bekker, who introduced him to the techniques of engraving and the art of the bookplate; Bekker invited Kirnitskiy to work with him in his workshop, which kindled his passion for the style he has made his own.

His big break came in 2009, when his work was included in an exhibition of five Ukrainian ex libris painters in Versime, Italy, and then in the Exlibris Museum in Shanghai. In 2010 he won a major prize in an Italian competition ‘La Sfera Celeste’ (The Celestial Sphere) held by the Biblioteca di Bodio Lomnago, which increased his visibility, especially with European and Chinese collectors.

Although many of his bookplate commissions are for erotic subjects, he is also very much at home with historical, mythological, and religious themes.

Similar artists

Ruslan Agirba – Russian-born, Kiev-based etcher of richly decorated mythological love scenes.
Konstantin Antioukhin – Russian bookplate engraver of figurative and mythological subjects.
Marcel Chirnoagă – Romanian engraver and graphic artist of fantastical erotic subjects.
Mikhail Gavrichkov – Russian contemporary etcher of erotic and folkloric scenes.
Vladimír Gažovič – Slovak printmaker of fantastic, allegorical lithographic realms.
Peter Kocák – Slovak engraver of refined erotic and bookplate subjects.
Oldřich Kulhánek – Czech graphic artist and printmaker of surreal figurative subjects.