Yoan Leviev was born in 1934 in Plovdiv. He finished monumental decorative painting at the Art Academy in the class of Prof. Georgi Bogdanov. From 1960, he regularly participated in the Plovdiv district exhibitions and the general art exhibitions of the SBH.
Together with the artists Encho Pironkov, Georgi Bozhilov, Dimitar Kirov, Kolyu Vitkovski, and Hristo Stefanov, Leviev is part of the so-called "Plovdiv school of the 1960s". The innovative approach to art defines the entire creative path of Ioan Leviev. He works in the field of easel and monumental painting and creates murals, decorative panels, and mosaics. Since 1970, he has held many solo exhibitions in Plovdiv, Sofia, Varna, and abroad - Warsaw, Prague, Los Angeles.
Works by Yoan Leviev are owned by the National Arts Gallery, Sofia City Art Gallery, other galleries, and private collections in the country and abroad. The "Ivan Vazov" public library in Plovdiv houses a collection of his projects for monumental works.
For his work, Leviev was awarded numerous awards, among them prizes of the Municipality of Plovdiv in 1968 and 1971, Order "Cyril and Methodius" - 1st degree (1970), prizes of the Union of the Bulgarian Artists for painting (1970, 1971, 1978) and for monumental art (1979, 1983).
He died on March 11, 1994 in Plovdiv.
