Born in Donet’sk, Ukraine in 1961, Andrei was self-motivated to paint and draw from a young age. His parents, Alexander and Anna Protsouk noticed his innate creative ability at the age of 6 when he impressed them with a clay sculpture of an Indian and a cowboy, possibly an early foreshadowing of his future life in the United States. Anna, a master embroider and calligraphy artist and Alexander a restorer, recognized Andrei’s talent as being one of exceptional caliber and therefore encouraged him to pursue fine art for the rest of his life.
After high school Andrei had been accepted to the exceptional Lugansk State School of Fine Art, an equivalent of a specialized art undergraduate study in the likes of Moore Collage of Art and Design and Cooper Union here in the U.S. Andrei graduated from Lugansk in 1981. His teachers had taken a particular liking to the way of his painting and drawing; they entertained and realized the idea for Andrei to pursue a Master’s degree of fine art from the then, Ilya Repin Leningrad Institute for Painting, Sculpture and Architecture (now called, the Russian Academy of Arts) in St. Petersburg, Russia. The Russian Academy of Arts is still to this day regarded, in the art world, as one of the best classical MFA art training programs in the world for its art education curriculum being transcended from the European baroque masters of the 18th century.
Andrei was taught under his dream professor at the time, the revered master artist Evsey Moiseenko who was not only famous in Russia but in Europe as well. Moiseenko, who was friends with other masters such as Pablo Picasso, Marc Chagall and Robert Rauschenberg, unfortunately passed away upon Andrei’s graduation in 1989. Being one of Moiseenko’s last students, Andrei was heavily influenced by him and was his protégée. Protsouk graduated at the top of his Master’s degree and earned the “Lenin’s Student Stipend” as well as the “Red Diploma,” the most awarded completion for the diploma in Russia at the time. Andrei constantly gained notoriety at the academy for his exceptional student work. His drawings were constantly being confiscated by the Soviets to be exhibited in the school’s museum for being the school’s most exemplar work; some hang in the academy to this day. Furthermore, for Andrei’s extraordinary technical skill in composition and quality, his professors recommended him to fulfill the school’s commission to put his drawings in a soviet collage text book and in the school’s book on exceptional student work.
After Gorbachev motioned the end of the Soviet Union, Russia’s boarders were open to the free market. Europe and the U.S. saw a huge demand for Soviet art. Art collectors saw this as a great opportunity to collect a glimpse behind the iron curtain through the vision of its motherland artists. His early work was reflective of harsh Soviet times, prosecution of artists and Soviet living conditions. Andrei represented these themes through the use of heavy textures, dark colors and somber subjects, where today, in contrast, he features bright colors, happy subjects and straight, constructive use of lines.
Andrei decided to move with his whole family to the United States. After establishing himself in the United States with the help of the Bixler Gallery in Stroudsburg, PA, Andrei has showed in galleries in SoHo and the ArtExpo in the Jacob Javitz Convention Center in New York City. He has also been collected by both corporate clients such as Coca-Cola in Denmark; Johnny Walker Expo Co. in England, Francis Lang Art, Hamburg, Germany and private collectors including former President George W. Bush.
Andrei has embedded his use of line into all of his artwork and has coined this technique as “Fine Line.” His straight, constructive use of line embodies his classical training in art in every way. In the academy, Andrei was revered as a master of composition where most artists were limited to only a few elements of composition in their artwork, Protsouk incorporated all of the elements of composition in his. This captivates his audience’s eyes which are drawn to move around his canvases so that every time anyone looks at his art, the unique composition doesn’t make you see his painting the same way twice.
Andrei lives in Stroudsburg Pennsylvania has his own studio and gallery space off Main Street where he lives with his family. Protsouk now exhibits his art globally. He has been represented in many galleries across the United States, Europe, New Zealand and Japan.