Andrey Chezhin (1960-)

Andrey Chezhin is an artist of phenomenal talent, who has most recently become exponentially involved in photography, although he also expresses himself through the medium of oil on canvas. Chezhin was born in Leningrad in 1960 where he graduated from the Leningrad Institute of Cinema and Engineering in 1982. It is during his studies that Chezhin developed his passion for photography, and this occurred whilst he was documenting exceptional feats of engineering and architecture, the echo of which can be seen in some of his works.

There are numerous ways in which Chezhin has as an artist and photographer supplemented to the overall development of the contemporary Russian art scene and these are important to note when attempting to assess his caliber. Chezhin’s personal contributions are extensive and include: Mirror photo club (1985) TAK group (1987-1996), Photopostscriptum art association (1993), Free Culture Fellowship (1996) as well as the International Federation of Artist (IFA) (1998). Here, not only did he aid in their foundation but he also presented some of his works, which were vital for the educational needs of other young and emerging artists who were intrigued by photography.

Chezhin is also the founder and contributor of the Autumn Photo Marathon annual festival (1998-2005), which became one of the best portrayals of the photographic scene in St. Petersburg in that period. Furthermore, Chezhin is the director of the PHOTOimage Gallery and the founder and director of The Drawing-Pin Museum. The latter is a demonstration of his perusal of one particular theme- the drawing pin, which he studied exhaustively. Hence, Chezin would create great constructions and statues from this particular object and subsequently photographically document them and develop those images. However, once this was completed, the object itself, made from the drawing pins, would be destroyed, leaving only the photograph as a potential source of previous existence.

One of the main reasons why Chezhin is experiencing such wide spread popularity in Russia is because his photographic process is so spontaneous which brings a certain edge to his works. Nonetheless, this unpredictability does not signify unreliability, as all his artistic efforts rest on a very solidly formed understanding of what constitutes photography as an art form. Consequently, Chezhin is able to build up on this platform through his self-sufficient photographic means of expression.

Overall, Chezhin is the author of over 60 solo exhibitions and a participant of more than 160 group exhibitions in Russian and abroad. His works can be found in museums and private collections in the USA, Italy, Poland and Russia. 

Selected Solo and Group Exhibitions:

2011     Drawing-Pin and Modernism. Perm Museum of Contemporary Art, Perm, Russia.

2010     I Love this City. Sputnik Gallery, New York, USA.

2010  America by Eyes. FotoFest, Russian Cultural Center ‘Our Texas’,

Houston, USA.

2010     Przestrzen Eschera. Piwnica Kany, Szczecin, Poland.

2010     Swiatlopis. Stara Cerkiew, Szczecin, Poland.

2009    To Play the Play of the Play (with David Plaksin), Museum of Non-

conformist Art, St.Petersburg, Russia.

2009     Kharmsiada. X-MAX Gallery, Ufa, Russia.

2008     I Love this City. Art Holding Tatiana Nikitina, St.Petersburg, Russia. 

2008     Museum of the Drawing-Pin part II, PHOTOimage Gallery,

St.Petersburg, Russia. 

2007     Masculine and feminine. ASAART Gallery, St. Petersburg, Russia. 

2007     Cross of Prussia / Konigsberg – Kaliningrad / The Space of Escher. 

Kaliningrad State Art Gallery, Kaliningrad, Russia. 

2007     Life and Death of Nicholas II, ASAART Gallery, St.Petersburg, Russia. 

2007     Museum of The Drawing-Pin part I, PHOTOimage Gallery,

St.Petersburg, Russia. 

2007     The Space of Escher. Da Vinci Gallery, Kiev, Ukraine. 

2007     Drawing-Pin and Modernism. Manezh, Central Exhibition Hall,

St.Petersburg, Russia. 

2006     Drawing-Pin and Modernism. The Visual Art Gallery, Adirondack

Community College, Queensbury, USA. 

2006     Meta order (from the Studio of the Creative Thing), The Gatchina

Reserve Museum, Prioratsky Palace, St. Petersburg, Russia. 

2006     Lines of Life. Anna Akhmatova, Anna Akhmatova Museum at the

Fountain House, St. Petersburg, Russia. 

2006     4 in 1 (together with Dmitry Mishenin), Ars Magna Gallery, St.

Petersburg, Russia. 

2005     Drawing-Pin and Modernism, Yaroslavl Museum of Art, Yaroslavl,

Russia. 

2005     Leningrad - a Hero City. Dmitry Semenov Gallery, St. Petersburg,

Russia. 

2005     The Space of Escher. Moscow House of Architect, Moscow, Russia. 

2005     To be continued. The International information show-center “Info-

Space”, Moscow, Russia. 

2005     The Petersburg art man-made silver photo on a boundary of

centuries. Ars Magna Gallery, St. Petersburg, Russia. 

2005     Two Venices (with Liudmila Chezhina), Museum of Non-conformist

Art, St. Petersburg, Russia. 

2005     Saint Regal Martyrs. The Russian Orthodox Fair, Manezh, Central

exhibition Hall, St.Petersburg, Russia. 

2004     Self portrait in 366 days. Contemporary History Museum, Moscow,

Russia. 

2004     Drawing-Pin and Modernism. Anya Tish Gallery, Houston, Texas, USA. 

2004     Nevsky Baptistery. FotoFest, Vine Street Studios, Houston, Texas,

USA. 

2004     Hands. the Fund of the artist Mikhail Shemyakin, St. Petersburg,

Russia. 

2004     St. Petersburg, the Language of Water. Teatro Nacional Claudio

Santoro, Brazil. 

2004     Lobby Exhibition #7. Andrey Chezhin, The World Bank in the Russian

Federation, Moscow, Russia. 

2003     Fishes. PHOTOimage Gallery, St. Petersburg, Russia. 

2003     Bridge. Street. St.Isaac Cathedral. Light., Delta Gallery, St.

Petersburg, Russia. 

2003     Transformation of Vision, Noname Gallery, Rotterdam, Holland. 

2003     City-text. Artcollegia Gallery, Moscow, Russia. 

2002     Lines of a Life, Gallery 103, St. Petersburg, Russia. 

2002     An Abstract Photography, Delta Gallery, St. Petersburg, Russia. 

2002     Charmsiade, Giedre Bartelt Gallery, Berlin, Germany. 

2002     Sobor, Delta Gallery, St. Petersburg, Russia. 

2002     Chezhin Andrey, Gomez Gallery, Baltimore, USA. 

2002     Geometry of Element – Element of Geometry, Na Obvodnom Gallery,

International Business-Centre “Neptun”, St. Petersburg, Russia. 

2001     Drawing-Pin and Modernism, Russian State University, Museum “Other

Art”, Moscow, Russia. 

2000     St. Petersburg, Escher series, Anya Tish Gallery, FotoFest, Houston,

Texas, USA. 

2000     Trace of GULAG, Noname Gallery, FotoBiennale, Rotterdam, Holland. 

2000     Touching St.Petersburg, Multihus Tobaksfabrikken, Esbjerg, Denmark. 

2000     Capital Destruction – rearranging landmarks, Hovedbiblioteket,

Esbjerg, Denmark. 

2000     Retrospective Review 1988-2000, Galeria Z, Bratislava, Slovakia. 

1999     Yours-Mine, PHOTOimage Gallery, St. Petersburg, Russia. 

1999     Transparent Dreams, Delta Gallery, St. Petersburg, Russia. 

1999     Russian Lens on Washington. Andrey Chezhin: New Angles. District of

Columbia Art Center, Washington DC, USA. 

1998     Dream. St. Petersburg – Warsaw, Mala Galleria, Warsaw, Poland. 

1998     Kharmsiade & From the Life of Thumb-Pins, Noname Gallery,

Rotterdam, Holland. 

1997     City-Text, Borey Gallery, St. Petersburg, Russia. 

1997     7 platform AXE, International Art Festival at the Baltic House, St.

Petersburg, Russia. 

1996     96 photographs, Manezh, Central Exhibition Hall, St. Petersburg,

Russia. 

1996     Kharmsiada, “PHOTOimage Gallery, St. Petersburg, Russia. 

1996     Andrey Chezhin, Teatro Gallery, Moscow, Russia. 

1996     Nevsky Baptistery, Aurora Museum, St. Petersburg, Russia. 

1994     Visiting Bulla, Gallery 21, St. Petersburg, Russia. 

1993     I am an Object, Photopostscriptumplace Gallery, St. Petersburg,

Russia. 

1993     Self portrait in 366 days, L’espace de Saint-Lorent, Saint-Marsellin,

France. 

Selected Public Collection: 

The State Hermitage, St. Petersburg, Russia; 

State Russian Museum, St. Petersburg, Russia; 

National Library of Russia, St. Petersburg, Russia; 

Gatchina Museum-Reserve; Priory Palace, Gatchina; collection of the “Free

Culture Fellowship”, St. Petersburg, Russia; 

Museum of Photography, Moscow, Russia; 

Mihail Chemiakin Foundation, St. Petersburg, Russia; 

Yaroslavl Museum of Art, Yaroslavl, Russia; 

Moscow House of Architects, Moscow, Russia; 

The Navigator Foundation, Boston, USA; 

Columbus Museum of Art, Columbus, Ohio, USA; 

Southeast Museum of Photography, Florida, USA; 

State University of New Jersey, New Brunswick, NJ, USA; 

Muzeo Ken Damy, Brescia, Italy; 

Centrum Sztuki Wspolczesney Zamek Ujazdowski, Warsaw, Poland; 

The Wiliam Hunt Collection, New York, USA; 

The Palladian Collection, New York, USA; 

Frederick R. Weisman Art Museum, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis,

USA; 

Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, Texas, USA; 

Brooklyn Museum, New York, USA; 

Muzeo d’Arte Contemporanea di Milano, Milano, Italy; 

The Hechinger Collection, USA; 

Collection the Royal Bank of Scotland in Houston, USA; 

Brandts Musseet for Fotokunst in Odense, Denmark. 

Selected Private Collections:  

Joshua P.Smith, Lucian Perkins, Ursula Herbrand, Paul Zimmer, Michael Peltsman, Manfred Schmmalriede, Henry Mendelssohn Buhl, Finn Thrane, and Bleddyn Phillips.