Alexander Melamid (; ; born July 14, 1945) is a

Russia Russia, or the Russian Federation, is a country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia. It is the list of countries and dependencies by area, largest country in the world, and extends across Time in Russia, eleven time zones, sharing Borders ...

n-born conceptualist and

performance artist Performance art is an artwork or art exhibition created through actions executed by the artist or other participants. It may be witnessed live or through documentation, spontaneously developed or written, and is traditionally presented to a pu ...

Biography

Melamid was born into a Jewish family of , a Soviet historian living in

Moscow Moscow is the Capital city, capital and List of cities and towns in Russia by population, largest city of Russia, standing on the Moskva (river), Moskva River in Central Russia. It has a population estimated at over 13 million residents with ...

. In his early life, he attended the Stroganov Art Institute, where he collaborated with

Vitaly Komar Komar and Melamid is a tandem team of Russian-born American conceptualist artists Vitaly Komar (born 1943) and Alexander Melamid (born 1945). In an artists' statement they said that "even if only one of us creates some of the projects and works, w ...

in the Russian

Sots art Often referred to as “Soviet Pop Art”, Sots Art or soc art (, short for Socialist Art) originated in the Soviet Union in the early 1970s as a reaction against the official aesthetic doctrine of the state— socialist realism, which was ma ...

movement (a parallel to the Western pop art movement). Known as a cynical

Social Realist Social realism is work produced by painters, printmakers, photographers, writers, filmmakers and some musicians that aims to draw attention to the real socio-political conditions of the working class as a means to critique the power structures ...

, Melamid began collaborating with Komar in the late 1960s; the two emigrated together to

New York City New York, often called New York City (NYC), is the most populous city in the United States, located at the southern tip of New York State on one of the world's largest natural harbors. The city comprises five boroughs, each coextensive w ...

from the

Soviet Union The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR), commonly known as the Soviet Union, was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 until Dissolution of the Soviet ...

in 1977. The duo created collaborative works as "

Komar and Melamid Komar and Melamid is a tandem team of Russian-born American conceptualist artists Vitaly Komar (born 1943) and Alexander Melamid (born 1945). In an artists' statement they said that "even if only one of us creates some of the projects and works, ...

". In 2003, the two artists decided to go their separate ways. Around this time, Melamid's first-born son, Dan, introduced him to the world of hip-hop, which included his clients and close friends Whoo Kid and

50 Cent Curtis James Jackson III (born July 6, 1975), known professionally as 50 Cent, is an American rapper, actor, and television producer. Born in Queens, a borough of New York City, Jackson began pursuing a musical career in 1996. In 1999–2000, ...

. Melamid was intrigued by hip-hop society because of its rich history and world appeal, and began to paint the hip-hop portraits that have become his first solo exhibition since splitting with Komar, on display at the

Museum of Contemporary Art Detroit The Museum of Contemporary Art Detroit (MOCAD) is a non-collecting contemporary art museum located in Detroit Detroit ( , ) is the List of municipalities in Michigan, most populous city in the U.S. state of Michigan. It is situated on th ...

. Alexander is currently working in Chelsea, NYC at his Art Healing Ministry. Recent new series of works include "Heaven and Hell" and "The Art of Plumbing."The Art of Plumbing
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References

Sources

1945 births Artists from Moscow Russian performance artists American people of Russian-Jewish descent Social realist artists Living people 20th-century Russian painters Russian male painters Russian contemporary artists American male painters American contemporary painters 20th-century Russian male artists Stroganov Moscow State Academy of Arts and Industry alumni {{US-painter-stub