Since 1982 Oleg Minko has worked as senior professor of the sub department of artistic tapestry at the Lviv State Institute of Applied and Decorative Arts.
He experimented with the human figure within the pictorial space of his paintings and through the use of symbolism tried to express his outrage at what he perceived was wrong in, the then, communist society.
Through this approach, between 1968 and 1972, he was to create a new series of philosophically pertinent and metaphorically loaded works: "Nostalhiya" (Nostalgia), "Bil"(The Pain), "Lyudyna z yablukom (Illuzionist)" (The Man with an apple (The Illusionist), "Kryk" (The Scream), "Bezgluzdia"(Nonsense).
These pieces clearly show the artist's preoccupation with things uniquely Ukrainian, national and traditional,[2] understanding of history and glorious Cossack times, pain for Ukraine's fate, prophesies on the future and concern for the present.
Later, after his creative crisis that lasted for almost eight years was over, these series of works would get a continuation: "Trypillya", "Banduryst", "Kniaz Sviatoslav", "Pamyat dida" (The Grandfather Memory), "Prorok" (The Prophet).
"The Exhibition of three" ("Vystavka triokh") – under this name it would enter art history – described as a bright event, "a sip of pure spring water" in the artistic environment.
[8] After the success of this exhibition (not only in Lviv, but also in Kyiv, Vilnius[9] and Moscow) Oleg Minko, Zenoviy Flinta and Lyubomyr Medvid were awarded the rank of "Honoured Artists of Ukraine".
Keeping to his individual artistic tradition, from the late 1980s and into the early 1990s he brings new elements and unique formal solutions to his works, creating an original world where his characters exist in the past, present and future simultaneously or – in parallel dimensions.
"Bil" (Pain), "Nostalgiya" (Nostalgy), "Muky" (Passions), "Pokayannya" (Repentance), "Dvi postati" (Two Figures), "Zemnni muky" (Earthly Passions), "Bila postat" (The White Figure), "Odkrovennya" (Revelation), "Liudyna I yahnia" (The Human and the Sheep), "Khymery" (The Chimeras), "Divchyna z ptakhom" (The Girl with a Bird), "Vershnyk" (The Rider), "Cholovik u krisli" (The Man in a Chair) – in these and other works we find not so much joy of life but more of its drama and tragedy, emphasized by the use of a darker palette of colours and shades.
"Kit i piven" (The Cat and the Rooster) as well as "Synia golova" (The Blue Head), "Naliakanyy kin" (The Scared Hoarse), a more expressionistic "Zhinochyi portret z babkoyu" (The Female Portrait with a Damselfly), "Ptashynyi spiv" (Bird Singing), "Portret iz zelenym lystkom" (Portrait with a Green Leave), "Tryvoga" (The Anxiety), "Zhinka, yaka yde po ozeru" (The Woman Walking the Lake), "Rozmova" (The Talk), "Mandruyuchi" (The Wandering), "Velyki hmary nad ozerom" (The Big Clouds over the Lake), "Metelyk na pliazhi" (The Butterfly on the Beach), "Piven" (The Rooster), "Divchyna z ptahom" (The Girl with a Bird) – these paintings speak of reality and mysticism, attempts to sink into the mystery of the ulterior world, bizarre life situations – a Ukrainian metaphysical world created by him.
[2] In 2000, in the textbook for high school students Osnovy estetyky (The Essentials of Aesthetics) published in Kyiv, the name of this Ukrainian postmodernist artist took its place next to expressionists such as the Norwegian Edvard Munch, French artist Georges Rouault, Austrian expressionist Arnulf Rainer and the surrealists – the French Jules Breton, the Spanish Salvador Dalí and the Belgian René Magritte.
In particular, works of the Lviv artist Oleg Minko "Vidchay" (The Despair), "Movchannia" (The Silence), "Perestoroga" (The Warning) – are a new step in the development of the "Slavic branch of European expressionism" – the authors L. Levchuk and O. Onyshenko state in their book.
He recently started working on a new series "Znykli tsyvilizazii" (The Lost Civilizations), in which one can sense the motifs behind the artist's existential emotions towards the future of humanity.