Born in Bieltzi, Moldavia, studied at the Kiev School of Arts and at the Odessa Art Institute.
Immigrated to Israel in 1990 and settled in Jerusalem.

Balaklav was known as a promising artist in Moldavia. in his early work in Russia, he sought to conduct a dialogue with the works of the great masters such as Caravaggio, Rembrandt and Repin.

The acme of Balaklav's paintings is the self portraits; in these paintings, he puts himself into states of environmental pressure, one can feel the absent presence of the artist, it seems like he is fading in the nothingness around him. 

"Leonid Balaklav acquired his reputation mainly in the 1990s, due to his tormented self-portraits. Later, came the portraits of family and friends, that revealed the painter’s enchantment with the local natural light, and there were still lives, and occasionally landscapes. But it seems that only now, once the ‘fence’ has been dismantled, the artist has the ability to confirm the world as achieving a balance between synthesis of inner and external worlds, that radiates physical and spiritual light, while projecting a feeling of goodness and blessing"

-Gideon Ofrat, Behind the Fence, 2010



Selected exhibitions of Leonid Balaklav:
1978   Scientist's House, Kiev
1988   One person  exhibition, The Jewish Center, Moscow
1989   One person exhibition, Central Artist's House, Kishinev
1990   Immigrants 90, group exhibition, Z.O.A house, Tel Aviv 
1991   Immigrant Artists', Gordon Gallery,Tel Aviv
1992   Russian Artists in New York, group exhibition, Michael Endo Gallery, 
          New- York
1993   Cypresses, One person exhibition, Artists' House, Jerusalem
1994   From their to here, One person exhibition, Museum of Art, Ein Harod
1995   Mirror, Mirror, group exhibition at the Youth Wing, The Israel Museum,
          Jerusalem
1997   Drawings 93-97, Herzliya Museum of Art, Herzliya;
1997   At Eye Height, group exhibition, Artists House, Jerusalem
1997   New Works, Artists' House, Jerusalem
1998   Landscape and Still-Life, Artspace, Jerusalem
2000   Portrait, Artspace, Jerusalem
2001   Drawings in Israel, group exhibition, Artists' House, Jerusalem
2002   Face of the Light, One person exhibition, Museum of Art, Ein Harod,
          (curator: Gideon Ofrat)
2002   Portrait, group exhibition, Tel Aviv Museum of Art
2003   Drawing+, one person exhibition, Engel Gallery, Tel Aviv.
2005   Dou exhibition, Museum of Art, Ein Harod.
2006   Painting- religious painters, Art Shelter, Jerusalem.
2006   Self portrait x10, Ella Gallery, Jerusalem
2007   The Mountains are round about Jerusalem, group exhibition, 
          Engel Gallery, Tel Aviv.
2008   One person exhibition, Museum of Art, Ein Harod
2008   The invisible Self Portrait, Engel Gallery, Tel Aviv
2010   Togetherness, One person exhibition, Engel Gallery, Tel Aviv
2015   An Obssessive Portraitist, One person exhibition, Tel-Aviv Museum
2015   Hidden Light, One person exhibition, Engel Gallery, Tel Aviv

Awards

1987  Gold Medal at the International Film Festival, Tokyo.
1995  Jerusalem Prize for painting and sculpture, Jerusalem
2002  Israel Discount Bank Israel Museum Prize for an Israeli Artist
2010  Shiff Prize for Figurative Realist Art, Tel-Aviv