He traveled extensively with his wife and creative partner, the artist Ada Rybachuk. Their first journey to the North took place in 1954, beginning on the shores of the White Sea and continuing on Kolguev Island. This trip inspired Melnychenko’s diploma work Winter Coast of the White Sea. Kolguev Island. Their next northern expedition, undertaken in 1955, lasted a year and a half.
The defense of their diplomas in the spring of 1957 was, in effect, the artists’ first solo exhibition. Volodymyr Melnychenko presented large-scale works such as The First of September and The Northern Sea, along with numerous sketches made during the northern expeditions.
Their third and longest expedition to the North (1957–1959) resulted in a gift of 118 works to the city of Naryan-Mar, which became the foundation of the first art museum in the Arctic. Today, the museum’s collection includes 237 works by Melnychenko and Rybachuk.
Together, the artists designed the monumental and decorative interiors of the Kyiv Bus Station, for which they received the First All-Union Prize for Young Architects. They also worked on the concept for the Republican Palace of Pioneers, participated in the competition for the Monument to the Victims of Fascism at Babyn Yar, and created the memorial and ritual complex Park of Memory at Baikove Cemetery — a project that took nearly thirteen years to realize. They also developed the concept for the historical and archaeological park Ancient Kyiv. To prepare for these projects, the couple traveled through Volyn, Podillia, and Bukovyna, studying folk customs and rituals, which later inspired their series of prints.
In 1982, the authorities halted work on the Park of Memory, declaring it inconsistent with the principles of socialist realism. In the spring of the following year, the reliefs of the Wall of Memory were encased in concrete, effectively destroying the project.
Working together, Melnychenko and Rybachuk created the series of monumental ceramic sculptures Bronze Images, the lithographic series Memory and Stop the Nuclear Threat (donated to the National Art Museum of Ukraine), the memorial cycle In Memory of Friends, and the project When the World Collapses, dedicated to the victims of Babyn Yar (consisting of a book and three tapestries). They signed all their joint works with the abbreviation ARVM.
In May 2018, a 6 m² fragment of the Wall of Memory was uncovered, and in 2021, the composition Berehynia was restored.