As a child, Alexander had no desire to follow his family’s artistic
tradition, aspiring instead to become an athlete, preferably a runner.
However, on a family trip to St. Petersburg, the teen-aged Alexander saw
some
Rembrandts
and changed his mind: he wanted to be a painter. In high school,
Alexander painted continuously and developed his skills at realism,
occasionally playing pranks by painting a coin on a park bench, for
example. Throughout college, he painted murals in people’s houses to
help support himself, and upon graduation in 1989, Alexander worked
painting street portraits in Russia and Ukraine. Later he moved to do
the same in Italy and France, and met some American tourists who enjoyed
his work and encouraged him to sell it in the United States. In 1995
Alexander was accepted into the prestigious Union of Artists in Russia,
and has since participated in many city, state, and nationwide events
throughout Russia. In 2003, his work began to be included in permanent
museum collections in Russia, including the collection at the
Presidential palace in St. Petersburg, and the Russian Academy of Fine
Art in Moscow.
