Vitaliy Shtanko was born in 1979 in the Ukraine. He studied at Drogobych Art School from 1990-1994, then attended Lvov Academy where he studied classical drawing and painting until 1999. In 2000, Vitaliy moved to Florence with his family where he continued to study classical painting techniques with Daniel Graves at The Florence Academy of Art. After gradauting from the Painting Program in 2010, Vitaliy was offered a position of Principal Instructor in the drawing and painting programs.
Since 2001, Vitaliy has participated in numerous group exhibitions and solo shows in Italy and abroad. The main subject of his artwork is portraiture, however, he also enjoys still life and genre painting. “To better characterize my nature as an artist, I like to quote the great Ilya Repin: Keep abreast of the new century, constantly move forward and only use the greatest and finest creations of art as examples, and, by following them, participate in art with your own strenths, adding to the overall gret chorus your own voice, and to improve the latter, you should work selflessly, work and study!.”
