Fedor Alekseev – COLOR FORM Automatic translate

The exhibition presents works by Fyodor Alekseev from 1976 to 2025. The exhibition includes studies created during his apprenticeship (1976–1987), paintings from the early period when his signature style was being developed (late 1980s – early 1990s), large-format works from his mature period (late 1990s – 2017), and works created in the last few years.

For three decades, Fyodor Alekseyev painted exclusively St. Petersburg landscapes. But in the city’s 300-year history, there isn’t a single artist who can be considered his predecessor or forerunner. Alekseyev’s St. Petersburg is far removed from any established traditions of the city’s iconography.

The artist strives to organize the spatial geometry of St. Petersburg into highly generalized color gestalts or patterns. For him, "color is form, but form in relation to another form-color." The preliminary color composition is the foundation upon which the pictorial flesh will be repeatedly built up. Each subsequent layer interacts with the previous one. "I don’t select colors, I test them in relation to one another. I do everything I can to ensure that the colors express themselves" (Fyodor Alekseyev). But even a slight change in the brightness or tone of one color alters the perception of all the other colors in the composition. The main thing is to find a color relationship in which each individual color-form finds its proper role in the overall composition.

This multi-stage, archaic process, with work on each piece lasting several years, results in something grandiose — academic in execution, monumental in form, and sophisticated in color. In each of these respects, Fyodor Alekseev’s work stands in stark contrast to contemporary art. He contrasts the playful, frivolous, and ironic with systematic and consistent academic work; the artist’s gesture and image with the work of art; and the context with the artistic text.

Fyodor Alekseev was born in Leningrad on September 8, 1952. During his school years, he attended the Hermitage history club. After graduating from School No. 204, he served three years as a submariner in the Baltic Fleet. From 1972 to 1974, he studied at the North-West Polytechnic Institute, in the Faculty of Technical Cybernetics; from 1974 to 1976, he studied at the Moscow Technological Institute, in the Faculty of Garment Technology.

Over the course of 12 years, he mastered the artistic craft, simultaneously attending two or three schools: Georgy Mudrenov’s private studio (1976–1988); V. I. Mukhina Leningrad Higher Art and Industry University (1976–1982); and I. E. Repin Institute (1982–1988). By 1988, he had been expelled from all three educational institutions for cosmopolitanism and formalism.

In 1988, he began developing his own visual system. Since 1989, he has been participating in exhibitions.

In 1996, Fyodor Alekseev was accepted as a candidate for membership in the Union of Artists of St. Petersburg, and since 1999 he has been a member of the Union of Artists of St. Petersburg.

From 2006 to 2017, he exhibited abroad, including at major international fairs such as Art Basel, Art Expo New York, Art Dubai, and others.

In the late 2010s, he expanded his creative subject matter — besides landscapes, he began painting portraits. He reduced the format of his works and significantly transformed his technique: he searched for a color scheme on a palette and then applied thick brushstrokes to the canvas with a palette knife or knife.