Alex Kanevsky (born 1963) is a painter currently based in

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. His works combine abstraction and figuration in multilayered portraits that capture movement and the constant flow of time, resisting adherence to a single moment. Kanevsky's work is rooted in the artistic traditions of

Eastern Europe Eastern Europe is a subregion of the Europe, European continent. As a largely ambiguous term, it has a wide range of geopolitical, geographical, ethnic, cultural and socio-economic connotations. Its eastern boundary is marked by the Ural Mountain ...

, where he grew up, and the

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, where he now lives.

Early life and education

Alex Kanevsky was born in

Rostov-on-Don Rostov-on-Don is a port city and the administrative centre of Rostov Oblast and the Southern Federal District of Russia. It lies in the southeastern part of the East European Plain on the Don River, from the Sea of Azov, directly north of t ...

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in 1963. Although he did not come from an artistic family, Kanevsky's parents owned a large collection of art books that were formative to his early introduction to art.McCann 2013, p. 111. Around age ten, he began producing paintings, drawing inspiration from his art books. Despite his interest in the

Impressionists Impressionism was a 19th-century art movement characterized by visible brush strokes, open composition, emphasis on accurate depiction of light in its changing qualities (often accentuating the effects of the passage of time), ordinary subjec ...

, Kanevsky was almost exclusively exposed to Socialist Realist paintings during his childhood. The artist recalls these works as being “the usual official drivel about workers and peasants engaged in heroic toil, done up in the style of the time, both bombastic and sentimental, heavy on dappled sunlight and Popeye-esque forearms.” When Kanevsky was fifteen, his family left Russia and moved to

Vilnius Vilnius ( , ) is the capital of and List of cities in Lithuania#Cities, largest city in Lithuania and the List of cities in the Baltic states by population, most-populous city in the Baltic states. The city's estimated January 2025 population w ...

Lithuania Lithuania, officially the Republic of Lithuania, is a country in the Baltic region of Europe. It is one of three Baltic states and lies on the eastern shore of the Baltic Sea, bordered by Latvia to the north, Belarus to the east and south, P ...

. It was here that the artist began to gain exposure to a more extensive artistic network. At the time, an expressionistic school existed in Lithuania that was unconcerned with realism or social issues. Observing this style of artwork proved to be eye opening to Kanevsky and he realized “that paintings could find the reason for their existence within themselves rather than being merely a decoration of a propaganda tool.” Initially, he studied theoretical mathematics at the

Vilnius University Vilnius University ( Lithuanian: ''Vilniaus universitetas'') is a public research university, which is the first and largest university in Lithuania, as well as one of the oldest and most prominent higher education institutions in Central and Ea ...

in Lithuania. However, in 1983, Kanevsky and his family decided to leave Europe and go to the United States. Settling in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, he began taking painting classes at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts in 1989.“Alex Kanevsky – Bibliography”
''Hollis Taggart Galleries'', New York. Accessed September 22, 2016.

Career

In 1997, Kanevsky won the

Pew Fellowship in the Arts The Pew Center for Arts & Heritage is a nonprofit organization, nonprofit grantmaking organization and knowledge-sharing hub for arts and culture in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, US established in 2005. In 2008, Paula Marincola was named the first ...

, which allowed him to paint constantly for two years. The ability to work on his art without interruption was a hugely positive influence in the artist's life. When his grant money ran out, Kanevsky decided to commit to pursuing a career as a full-time artist.“Alex Kanevsky Interview with Neil Plotkin”
''Painting Perceptions''. Accessed September 22, 2016. Galleries eventually responded to his work, providing him with the means to rent studio space. Since that time, Kanevsky has exhibited his work throughout the United States,

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, the

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and

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. He has had over twenty solo exhibitions and has been included in more than fifteen group shows. From 2002-2017, Kanevsky had been an adjunct painting instructor at the

Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts The Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts (PAFA) is a museum and private art school in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Founded in 1805, it is the longest continuously operating art museum and art school in the United States. The academy's museum ...

. Kanevsky’s paintings were featured in the 2008 film

Synecdoche, New York ''Synecdoche, New York'' ( ) is a 2008 American postmodern psychological drama film written and directed by Charlie Kaufman in his directorial debut. The film stars Philip Seymour Hoffman as Caden Cotard, a theater director whose attempt to ...

directed by

Charlie Kaufman Charles Stuart Kaufman (; born November 19, 1958) is an American screenwriter, film director, and novelist. Having first come to prominence for writing ''Being John Malkovich'' (1999), ''Adaptation (film), Adaptation'' (2002), and ''Eternal Sun ...

. In 2012, he acted as a juror for the ''71st Annual Juried Exhibition'' at the

Woodmere Art Museum Woodmere Art Museum, located in the Chestnut Hill section of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, has a collection of paintings, prints, sculpture and photographs focusing on artists from the Delaware Valley and includes works by Thomas Pollock Anshutz, ...

, Philadelphia.

Style and subject

Kanevsky's works are primarily concerned with the expression of time and movement. Taking the figure as his primary subject matter, the artist's abstracted versions of reality seek to convey his personal and particular worldview with “extreme clarity.” Exploring stillness and speed simultaneously, the artist displays a

Futurist Futurists (also known as futurologists, prospectivists, foresight practitioners and horizon scanners) are people whose specialty or interest is futures studies or futurology or the attempt to systematically explore predictions and possibilities ...

sensibility through his multilayered canvases. His compositions frequently juxtapose static, monumental objects with quick, expressive brushstrokes in order to suggest that people are defined by their motion and actions, rather than their physical place in the world.Birmingham, Pamela, Alex Kanevsky and Matthew Palczynski, “A Conversation with Alex Kanevsky,” in ''The Woodmere Annual: 71st Juried Exhibition'', 2012. Philadelphia, PA: Woodmere Art Museum, 14. Kanevsky's figures inhabit mysterious landscapes and ambiguous architecture that shift between the recognizable world and pure form and color.< Nudes feature prominently in his oeuvre and are often depicted bathing, lying on beds or floors, or boldly facing the viewer. His paintings, despite having titles, do not usually have a linear narrative. Rather, the titles function as tools, “mostly to accomplish certain precise emotional climates

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than to tell a story.” Kanevsky feels a deep connection to art history, especially to the masters of portraiture

Rembrandt Rembrandt Harmenszoon van Rijn (; ; 15 July 1606 – 4 October 1669), mononymously known as Rembrandt was a Dutch Golden Age painter, printmaker, and Drawing, draughtsman. He is generally considered one of the greatest visual artists in ...

and

Velázquez Velázquez, also Velazquez, Velásquez or Velasquez (, ), is a surname from Spain. It is a patronymic name, meaning "son of Velasco". References to "Velazquez" without a first name are often to the Spanish painter, Diego Velázquez. Notable peo ...

. His own artistic influences are wide-ranging, including objects, artists, writers, and thinkers. The influence of post-war figural painters such as

Lucian Freud Lucian Michael Freud (; 8 December 1922 – 20 July 2011) was a British painter and draughtsman, specialising in figurative art, and is known as one of the foremost 20th-century English portraitists. His early career as a painter was inf ...

and

Francis Bacon Francis Bacon, 1st Viscount St Alban (; 22 January 1561 – 9 April 1626) was an English philosopher and statesman who served as Attorney General and Lord Chancellor of England under King James I. Bacon argued for the importance of nat ...

is evident in the artist's fleshy, abstracted figures. Meanwhile, the roots of Kanevsky's color can be found in the works of

Vincent van Gogh Vincent Willem van Gogh (; 30 March 185329 July 1890) was a Dutch Post-Impressionist painter who is among the most famous and influential figures in the history of Western art. In just over a decade, he created approximately 2,100 artworks ...

Georges Seurat Georges Pierre Seurat ( , ; ; 2 December 1859 – 29 March 1891) was a French post-Impressionist artist. He devised the painting techniques known as chromoluminarism and pointillism and used conté crayon for drawings on paper with a rough ...

, and

Richard Diebenkorn Richard Diebenkorn (April 22, 1922 – March 30, 1993) was an American painter and printmaker. His early work is associated with abstract expressionism and the Bay Area Figurative Movement of the 1950s and 1960s. In the late 1960s he began ...

, among others. Aside from admiring the paintings of

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and

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an masters, the artist draws inspiration from the work of literary greats, such as

Leo Tolstoy Count Lev Nikolayevich Tolstoy Tolstoy pronounced his first name as , which corresponds to the romanization ''Lyov''. () (; ,Throughout Tolstoy's whole life, his name was written as using Reforms of Russian orthography#The post-revolution re ...

James Joyce James Augustine Aloysius Joyce (born James Augusta Joyce; 2 February 1882 – 13 January 1941) was an Irish novelist, poet, and literary critic. He contributed to the modernist avant-garde movement and is regarded as one of the most influentia ...

Wallace Stevens Wallace Stevens (October 2, 1879 – August 2, 1955) was an American modernist poet. He was born in Reading, Pennsylvania, educated at Harvard and then New York Law School, and spent most of his life working as an executive for an insurance compa ...

, and

Ezra Pound Ezra Weston Loomis Pound (30 October 1885 – 1 November 1972) was an List of poets from the United States, American poet and critic, a major figure in the early modernist poetry movement, and a Collaboration with Nazi Germany and Fascist Ita ...

Technique

Kanevsky describes himself as a slow painter who must operate quickly to maintain a fresh approach to his work. Generally, he paints directly on birch plywood or stretched linen with various types of oil paint –

Guerra Guerra is a Portuguese, Spanish and Italian term meaning "war". Notable people with the surname Guerra include: People Arts * Aaron Guerra, American guitarist * Adam Daniel Guerra, American drag queen also known as Venus D-Lite * Ana Clara Guerr ...

, Mussini,

Holbein Holbein may refer to: *Holbein (surname) *Holbein, Saskatchewan, a small village in Canada *Holbein carpet, a type of Ottoman carpet *Holbein stitch, a type of embroidery stitch * Holbein (crater), a crater on Mercury {{Disambig ...

, Classic (Triangle Coatings) – and uses

Liquin Liquin is a quick-drying medium for oil and alkyd paint. Used as an additive in many forms of artwork, Liquin is produced by Winsor & Newton and has a number of uses. Origin Alkyd resin medium for artists was first invented in the 1970s by Arthur ...

as a medium. The merging of figuration and abstraction in his artworks is the result of the process of erasure that Kanevsky employs. This technique of painting, rubbing out, and painting over results in a series of layers through which past iterations and experimentations are visible to the viewer. Kanevsky paints both from life and

photographs A photograph (also known as a photo, or more generically referred to as an ''image'' or ''picture'') is an image created by light falling on a photosensitive surface, usually photographic film or an electronic image sensor. The process and pra ...

, with a preference for working with live models due to the importance of movement in his subjects. He often works with the same models for years, developing over time a strong sense of their individual form and motion. Alternatively, photography enables the artist explore fleeting situations, unintended artifacts, and imperfections.McCann, “Refiguring History Painting,” 113.

References

Sources

* McCann, Margaret. “Refiguring History Painting: Representation Meets Modern Techniques.” In ''The Figure: Painting, Drawing, and Sculpture – Contemporary Perspectives'', edited by Margaret McCann. New York: SkiraRizzoli. 2013.

External links

Alex Kanevsky. ''Alex Kanevsky''. 2016.
{{DEFAULTSORT:Kanevsky, Alex American contemporary painters 21st-century American painters 20th-century painters Painters from Pennsylvania Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts faculty Pew Fellows in the Arts 1963 births Living people Russian emigrants to the United States Russian contemporary artists Artists from Rostov-on-Don