Mihail Chemiakin  (Russian, 1943) 

Mihail Chemiakin (Russian, b.1943) was a prominent member of the Soviet Nonconformist movement. In 1967, Chemiakin founded the St. Petersburg Group of artists, and developed the philosophy of Metaphysical Synthesism, dedicated to the creation of a new form of icon-painting based on the study of religious art of all ages and peoples. The research begun in the 1960s into the art of all ages and peoples has developed into a collection of millions of images organized into technical, historical, and philosophical categories, which has earned the artist five honorary doctorates, and is the basis for his Institute of the Philosophy and Psychology of Art. He works in a broad range of media, from drawings to monumental sculpture, theater and cinema, and on themes ranging from the theatrical to the philosophical.

Chemiakin’s theatrical work began in 1967 with a production of Shostakovich’s opera The Nose at the Studio of the Leningrad Conservatory. He has since produced numerous ballet’s with the Mariinsky Theater.

In 1971, Chemiakin was forced out of the USSR by the Soviet authorities. He settled, first in Paris, and then moved to New York City in 1980.

In 1989, the return of Chemiakin’s work to post-Communist Russia began with the first exhibition of his work there since his exile. Subsequently, he installed four monuments in St. Petersburg, to Peter the Great, to the Victims of Political Repressions, and to the Architects and Builders of St. Petersburg.

Chemiakin’s Cybele: Goddess of Fertility was installed in 1993 in New York’s SoHo neighborhood. One variation on the monument to Peter the Great is on permanent display in Normandy, another in Loches, France. In 1998, Chemiakin’s Monument to Giacomo Casanova was installed in Venice in honor of the bicentenary of Casanova’s death. Dialogue between Plato and Socrates, a memorial to Professor Harold Yuker, is installed at Hofstra University in New York. In 2001, he inaugurated a monument commemorating the tercentenary of Peter the Great’s visit to London on the banks of the Thames, and a monumental sculpture composition Children—Victims of the Sins of Adults in Moscow. His latest exhibitions include Sidewalks of Parisat the State Russian Museum in St. Petersburg, and A World in Drops of Water at the Museum of Water in St. Petersburg.

The artist has been awarded numerous prizes, such as Chevalier des Arts et Lettres (France 1994) and State Prize of the Russian Federation (Russia, 1993). He is Doctor Honoris Causa at the University of San Francisco, the Academie Europeene des Arts in France, and the Russian State University of the Humanities in Moscow. Chemiakin’s work is in the permanent collections of numerous museums in the United States, Russia, France, Poland, and CIS countries.

The artist lives and works in Russia, the United States, and France.