Volodymyr manzhos aka Waone

artist, muralist based in kyiv, ukraine

EXHIBITIONS:

2024: 20/21 CENTURY ART - Day Sale CHRISTIE’S PARIS

2024: MOT x The Collectyv. Group exhibition, MOT Cultural space. Lviv, Ukraine.

2024: “Nuit de Lumiere“ solo exhibition, Centre Culturel d'Ukraine en France, Paris.

2024: “Ordinary Mystic“ solo exhibition, Sapar Contemporary, New-York City, USA.

2023: “Visionary Tales“ solo exhibition, Item Gallery (Idem Paris), Paris, France.

2023: “ART ON THE BATTLEFRONT” group exhibition, Albertina modern ,Vienna, Austria.

2020: “IMPRINT“ group exhibition, Ukrainian printmaking of the XX-XXI centuries. Mystetskyi Arsenal, Kyiv, Ukraine.

2019: “Алхімія мотивації“ (alchemy of motivation) group exhibition. Modern Art Research Institute of the National Academy of Arts of Ukraine. Kyiv.

2019: “Must Have“ group exhibition. Mironova Foundation. Kyiv Ukraine.

2018: “This art is too smart“ solo exhibition Varsi gallery, Rome, Italy.

2018: "ПО ГРАФІКУ/FOR GRAPHICS" group show for Kyiv Art Week, Kyiv, Ukraine.

2017: "Weird Tales" solo exhibition, curated by Ivan Quaroni, Antonio Colombo Arte Conemporanea, Milan, Italy.

2017: "Theriomorphism IV" group exhibition, curated by Okuda San Miguel with Ink And Movement at Kreisler Gallery, Madrid, Spain. 

2016 "Sacred Gravitation" Interesni Kazki solo show at Jonathan LeVine Gallery, New York, NY, USA

2015 "SOURCE CODES, URBAN CONTEMPORARY VISIONS". This major survey aim to investigate relations between 80’s graffiti and contemporary street art
Curated by 999Contemporary / Stefano S. Antonelli & Francesca Mezzano. Catania, Sicily, Italy. 

2015 "Surface" project by Søren Solkær at Allouche Soho Art Gallery New York, NY, USA

2014 "Inter Arma Silent Musae" Interesni Kazki solo show at Studio Cromie gallery, Grottaglie, Italy

2012 "The street of the World" group show at Opera Gallery, New York, NY, USA

2012 "My Turn" group show at Carmichael Gallery, Los-Angeles, USA

2011 "Nothing special" Interesni Kazki solo show at Midcity-Arts gallery, Los-Angeles, CA,USA

2011 "Objects of the Universe" Interesni Kazki solo show at Avantgarden gallery, Milan, Italy

2011 "ASA All Stars" group show at Go-Gallery, Amsterdam, Netherlands

2011  "Twenty Century Mirabilia" group show at Avantgarden gallery, Milan, Italy

2010 "Paranoya and shtrihi" Interesni Kazki solo show at All Over Gallery, Lyon, France

AUCTIONS: Live Auction 23008 20/21 CENTURY ART - Day Sale

Œuvres vendues au profit du Fonds de dotation « L’Imprimerie d’Art du Montparnasse » CHRISTIE’S PARIS

COLLECTIONS:

Colleccion SOLO
MAEGHT Fondation

CLIENTS:

TSUM Kyiv, SNCF, Paris Airport, Hermès

MURAL PROJECTS:

2019:
#1096 project, Versailles, France

Ipaf Festival. Martinique, France

2018:

Scoala Goga, Cluj Napoca Romania

UpeArt, Kotka Finland

Concrete Canvas, Victoria BC Canada

Stadtwandkunst , Mannheim, Germany

Concrete Canvas, Victoria BC, Canada

2017:

Somo Fresh Walls. Somo Cantbria, Spain. 

JIDAR - Toiles de Rue, Rabat, Morocco. 

2016:

Artrepublic JAX. Jacksonville, Florida, USA.

District Walls. Washington DC, USA.

Richmond Mural Project. Richmond, Virginia, USA.

2015:

"Emergence" street-art project, Catania, Sicily, Italy.

"Form" mural and contemporary art project, Perth,WA, Australia.

Charity mural project by Interesni Kazki. Kiev, Ukraine

"WeAArt" mural project, Aalborg, Denmark

Milestone project. Girona, Spain.

2013:

"Wynwood Walls" project, Miami FL, USA.

"Library Street Art Collective" project. Detroit, USA.

"Favca" mural and contemporary art project, Ciudad-del-Carmen, Campeche, Mexico.

LGZ project, Moscow Russia.

"Boombarstik" festival in Vodjnan, Croatia.

Mural project by Underdogs, Losbon Portugal.

"No name festival", Fleury-Les-Aurbais, France.

2012:

mural project "Earth meets Heaven", St.Ottilien, Germany.

Starring for movie "Les Noveaux Explorateurs" CANAL Plus.

Mural for the Europejska Fundacja Kultury Miejskiej Festival in Lublin, Poland.

"All City Canvas" Mexico DF, Mexico.

"Living Walls", Atlanta USA.

"Open Walls", Baltimore USA.

2011:

"Wynwood Walls"  project, Miami FL, USA.

"Street Art Communication" project, Kozice, Slovakia.

"Walk&Talk" mural art festival, Ponta Delgada, Azores islands, Portugal.

"Bloop Festival" mural and contemporary art festival, Ibiza, Spain.

"Stenograffia", mural art festival, Yekaterinburg, Russia.

2010:

"Arte Para Todos" mural art festival, Sevilla, Spain.

2009:

"Poliniza" mural art project, Valencia, Spain.

2003-2005: 

Painting murals in Ukraine, style developing and Interesni Kazki establishing.

1999:

Strating to paint graffiti.  

Artist statement

The main goal of Waones art is to find out who am i and explore the outside world.
Viewing through the lens of the creative process gives me posibility
to shift the focus away from the vanity of common life and tap into stranger invisible world, the origin of the entire existence…

BIO 

Vloodymyr Manzhos (b. 1981, near Kyiv, Ukraine), also known as Waone, is a contemporary artist working between Kyiv and Paris.

The name Waone derives from a colloquial diminutive of “Vladimir” common in the post-Soviet 1990s, later transformed into a stylized form reflecting early graffiti and hip-hop aesthetics.

He grew up in an environment shaped by art: his father was an avid collector of local artworks and rare Orthodox icons, and their home was filled with art books and Soviet-era illustrated magazines. This early exposure informed his sensitivity to symbolic imagery and narrative structures from a young age. Manzhos began his artistic career in 1999 through graffiti as a member of the Kyiv-based crew Ingenious Kids. By the early 2000s, he moved beyond lettering into figurative and narrative mural painting. In collaboration with Aec, he developed a distinctive approach to large-scale public art, creating complex surreal compositions rooted in visual storytelling.

In 2005, they co-founded the artist duo Interesni Kazki (“Interesting Fairy Tales”), recognized for their intricate murals combining mythology, symbolism, and refined painterly technique. Over the following decade, their work gained international recognition, with murals spanning from Australia to Mexico, and from San Francisco to Kyiv. Since 2016, Manzhos has focused on his independent practice, expanding beyond murals into painting and sculpture. His work explores metaphysical themes, combining symbolic systems, mythology, and philosophical inquiry into visually dense and highly detailed compositions.

Working across different contexts, Waone has also engaged in cross-disciplinary collaborations, including projects with Hermès, while his works have begun to circulate on the secondary market, including at Christie’s.

Today, Manzhos develops his practice between Kyiv and Paris, working within the context of Idem Paris and in dialogue with the legacy of Galerie Maeght and Fondation Maeght, situating his work within a broader European tradition of modern and contemporary art.

Alongside his studio practice, Manzhos has developed an ongoing series of public works titled Time for Change, initiated during the events of 2013–2014 in Ukraine. Continuing through the present, including the period of full-scale war, these murals engage with themes of transformation, collective memory, and cultural identity. Some of these works have become defining images within the Ukrainian public space, reflecting their lasting cultural resonance.

His artistic practice can be understood as a pursuit of transcendence, where painting becomes a medium for exploring higher states of consciousness and rendering complex spiritual ideas into precise visual form.

Early Influences and Artistic Beginnings
 

Creating Understandable Visual Forms