Slava Ilyayev

Slava Ilyayev brings the entire spectrum of color to life on canvas with extraordinary physical presence, working as a virtuoso with the palette knife. Like Vincent Van Gogh, Paul Gauguin and the Fauve artists, he unleashes vibrant color and rich texture in service of a vision of nature that radiates light, warmth and energy. His landscapes capture the seasons in all their chromatic glory, and he is represented by Park West Gallery.
Born on May 11, 1970 in Baku, Azerbaijan, an ancient Silk Road city where Europe and Asia intersect, Ilyayev mastered his craft at the local college of arts under teachers from the Apsheron school of painting, which advocated a unique blend of Asian and European styles. He emigrated to Israel in 1995 and completed his studies at the renowned Avni Institute of Art and Design in Tel Aviv. The Israeli art community honored him with major exhibitions at the Art and Sculpture Union in Tel Aviv and the Safrai Fine Art Gallery in Jerusalem, and his fame quickly became international.
Ilyayev’s technique relies on three main stages using the palette knife. He outlines the composition’s structure, then applies heavy swathes of thick impasto that can take up to a year to dry, carving linear compositions into the raised paint. He builds five or six layers to achieve deep, diverse color expression. Today, he lives in Tel Aviv with his wife Alexandra and their children, where he also teaches.