Biography

I was born in Russia and attended the Moscow School of Fine Arts, where I studied art history and figure painting and drawing in the classical realistic tradition, with anatomy studies, and drawing and painting from life models.

I also studied at the Department of Applied Arts and Design at Moscow Textile Institute and graduated with a BFA in textile design, fashion illustration and design and painting in 1977.

Before immigrating to the United States, I spent the summer of 1981 in Italy, studying art at the greatest museums. To be in Rome, to spend days in front of the masterpieces in the Vatican and to study for weeks the works of the Masters was an unforgettable experience.

After moving to Philadelphia, I worked for many years in textile and fashion industry companies, including Albert Nipon Inc. and Alfred Angelo Inc. I continued to paint and draw and exhibited at the local art centers and galleries and in 1998 started working full-time as a professional figurative artist. At that time my interest in sculpture grew stronger and I started working in terra cotta.

I went back to school at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts in 2005. I studied head and figure sculpture, anatomy and figure drawing with John Horn, stone sculpture with Steve Nocella and Alexander Hromich and painting with Joshua Marsh.

I have exhibited extensively in the Delaware Valley area in solo and group shows, and my sculptures and drawings and some commissioned portraits are also in some private collections.

I am a faculty member and instructor at the Darlington Arts Center in Garnet Valley, Pennsylvania, and at The Community Arts Center in Wallingford, Pennsylvania.