Alexander Volkov
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Unframed Limited Edition Giclees on Canvas
Unframed Collectors Edition Giclees on Canvas
(Edition size: 25 Artist Enhanced Proofs)
Unframed Collectors Edition Giclees on Canvas
(Edition size: 25 Artist Enhanced Proofs)
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Alexander Volkov was born in St.Petersburg (then Leningrad), Russia in 1960. He started painting with oil as
a high school student.
In 1981 he began to exhibit his paintings with a group of 200 Leningrad artists known as the "Brotherhood of
Experimental Arts", a conglomeration of "underground" art groups active in Leningrad at the time. Later, he
joined a splinter group called "Ostrov" or "Island" which united 30 artists who felt that, ideologically, their
work was neither socialist realism nor extreme avant garde.
Since moving to the U.S. in 1990 he has worked as a teacher and exhibited his paintings in Princeton and
Lambertville, New Jersey, New Hope, Pennsylvania, Carmel, Laguna Beach and San Francisco, California
and Park City, Utah. Alexander's paintings have also been exhibited in Russia, Sweden, Germany and
Finland.
Reluctantly, he calls himself a "self-taught" artist. "We really teach ourselves. If you want to learn, you will
always find someone to learn from, be they dead or alive, great or unknown. You learn from everything you
see and hear around you - if you are willing to pay attention. Perhaps, during my forming years, I have made
a lot of unnecessary mistakes, but at the same time I have had the enormous advantage of picking my own
teachers."
And so they were: William Turner, Vermeer, Franz Hals, Rembrandt and many others from the previous
centuries as well as Edward Hopper, Maxfield Parrish and Andrew Wyeth of the 20th century. They also were
Beethoven and Satie, Nabokov and Steinbeck, Einstein and Tarkovsky. They were school and university
friends, physics professors and struggling artists. "They have all taught me something - how to see, how to
hear, how to understand things and, most importantly, how to understand myself. I cannot separate any one
of their voices from the voice which I hear inside of me and which has become my own voice."
Combining a lifelong fascination with architecture, landscape and still-life subjects, Alexander brings drama
and poetic expression into his work. With his unique vision, he merges mood and atmosphere, evoking
powerful emotions that create harmony. "There is no greater mystery to me than the conflict of light and
dark. In the way they clash and penetrate each other, there is the source of everything. Whether I paint a
landscape, a still-life or a portrait, within it there is always a story of light traveling through darkness."
Alexander now lives in Holland Township, New Jersey with his wife Barbara and their three children, Alice,
Peter and Nicholas.
a high school student.
In 1981 he began to exhibit his paintings with a group of 200 Leningrad artists known as the "Brotherhood of
Experimental Arts", a conglomeration of "underground" art groups active in Leningrad at the time. Later, he
joined a splinter group called "Ostrov" or "Island" which united 30 artists who felt that, ideologically, their
work was neither socialist realism nor extreme avant garde.
Since moving to the U.S. in 1990 he has worked as a teacher and exhibited his paintings in Princeton and
Lambertville, New Jersey, New Hope, Pennsylvania, Carmel, Laguna Beach and San Francisco, California
and Park City, Utah. Alexander's paintings have also been exhibited in Russia, Sweden, Germany and
Finland.
Reluctantly, he calls himself a "self-taught" artist. "We really teach ourselves. If you want to learn, you will
always find someone to learn from, be they dead or alive, great or unknown. You learn from everything you
see and hear around you - if you are willing to pay attention. Perhaps, during my forming years, I have made
a lot of unnecessary mistakes, but at the same time I have had the enormous advantage of picking my own
teachers."
And so they were: William Turner, Vermeer, Franz Hals, Rembrandt and many others from the previous
centuries as well as Edward Hopper, Maxfield Parrish and Andrew Wyeth of the 20th century. They also were
Beethoven and Satie, Nabokov and Steinbeck, Einstein and Tarkovsky. They were school and university
friends, physics professors and struggling artists. "They have all taught me something - how to see, how to
hear, how to understand things and, most importantly, how to understand myself. I cannot separate any one
of their voices from the voice which I hear inside of me and which has become my own voice."
Combining a lifelong fascination with architecture, landscape and still-life subjects, Alexander brings drama
and poetic expression into his work. With his unique vision, he merges mood and atmosphere, evoking
powerful emotions that create harmony. "There is no greater mystery to me than the conflict of light and
dark. In the way they clash and penetrate each other, there is the source of everything. Whether I paint a
landscape, a still-life or a portrait, within it there is always a story of light traveling through darkness."
Alexander now lives in Holland Township, New Jersey with his wife Barbara and their three children, Alice,
Peter and Nicholas.
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