Mihail Chemiakin

Mihail Chemiakin (b. 1943) studied at the Special High School at the Repin Academy of Arts in Leningrad (St. Petersburg). In 1971 Chemiakin, by then a well-known “underground” artist, was exiled from the USSR by the Soviet authorities. He settled first in France, then moved to New York in 1980. Chemiakin returned to Russia for the first time in 1989 for a major retrospective exhibition of his work in Moscow. Since then he has continued to exhibit and create public sculpture in Russia, as well as stage ballet productions at the Mariinsky Theater. Concerned about the education of a new generation of artists in Russia, he made a series of televised lectures on the history of art for Russia’s “Kultura” channel and regularly conducts master-classes both in Russia and at his studio, now located in central France.