Alexander Aksinin

Alexander Aksinin was a well-regarded printmaker and painter. He was born in Lviv, Soviet Union, on October 2, 1949, and died in a plane crash near Lviv on May 3, 1985. His sophisticated etching technique, precision and perfectionist attention to details earned him the sobriquet the “Dürer of Lviv”. Art critics hailed him as “a 20th century Piranesi” for his dramatic and elaborate constructs.

Alexander Aksinin was born to military cartographer Dmitriy Aksinin and railroad official Ludmila Aksinina. In 1972 he graduated from the Ukrainian Institute of Printing, where he specialized in Graphics Arts. In 1972–1977 Aksinin worked as an art editor in a publishing house, served in the Soviet army and then worked as an art designer in an industrial design office. Since 1977 he focused entirely on his art, in particular in the fields of printed and drawn graphics.

In 1981 Alexander Aksinin wrote the following brief autobiography for poet V. Krivulin's (Russian) essay, where real and factual events are melded together with metaphysical observations:

In 1949 a Russian-like man was born in a European-like city of Lvov.
Christian Orthodox.
1972 - a diploma of Ukrainian Institute of Print, with specialization on Graphics.
1977 - the 1st revelation with associated sense of time.
1981 - the 2nd revelation with associated sense of eternity.
1979 - the first solo exhibition in Tallinn.
1981 - the second one in Poland.
That's it.

On May 3, 1985, on his way back from Tallinn, Alexander Aksinin died in a plane crash near Zolochiv, close to Lviv.

A. Aksinin made 343 printed graphics including 3 unfinished works (mainly etching), about 200 unique drawn graphics in mixed techniques (gouache, India ink, color ink), as well as four oil paintings.

Since 1974 A. Aksinin graphics have been shown at various solo and group exhibitions worldwide. The artist regularly participated in the International Biennale of Small Graphics Forms in Łódź (Poland), where he was awarded Honorable Medals in 1979 and 1985.

From 2015 his etching series "Boschiana" is included in the permanent exhibition of the Jheronimus Bosch Art Center in 's-Hertogenbosch in the Netherlands.

A.Aksinin's "Boschiana" in the Jheronimus Bosch Art Center

List of Solo Exhibitions

2014

• Alexander Aksinin. Methagraphics: The Insight Experience. Lviv National Art Gallery, Lviv, Ukraine

2013

• Poetics of the Absurd, Gallery la Brique, Frankfurt, Germany

2012

• Metagraphics: Alexander Aksinin. Gallery Pionova, Gdansk, Poland
• Aks-Art & Aks-Libris. Exlibris Gallery, Warsaw, Poland

2010

• Aksinin. Excessus. Gallery Vata, Rostov-on-Don, Russia
• Alexander Aksinin. National Center for Contemporary Art, Moscow, Russia

2009

• Alexander Aksinin: The Inner Experience. Art Gallery Primus, Lviv, Ukraine

2008

• Aksinin: Eternal Books - Visual Images. Exhibition Hall of Don State Public Library, Rostov-on-Don, Russia (video)
• Time-Space-Eternity. The State Museum of A.Pushkin, Moscow, Russia (Video on YouTube)

2006

• Alexander Aksinin. Day R. Museum of Contemporary Visual Art on Dmitrovskoy, Rostov-on-Don, Russia

2001

• Alexander Aksinin's Etchings. Gallery Dzyga, Lviv, Ukraine (video)

1992

• Central House of Artists, Moscow, Russia

1991

• Museum of Russian Art, Kiev, Ukraine

1988

• 66 Etchings of Alexander Aksinin from private collections. Gallery of Graphics and Drawings, Gdynia, Poland; Muzeum Zamkowe, Malbork, Poland

1987

• Museum of Ukrainian Art, Lviv, Ukraine

1985

• Gallery In Blanco, Łódź, Poland
• Art Saloon, Tallinn, Estonia

1984

• Gallery of Contemporary Soviet Art, Warsaw, Poland

1981

• January — Gallery Bałucka, Łódź, Poland

1979

• Estonian State Art Institute, Tallinn, Estonia

• Michael Sokolov A Free Grandson of the Black Square - On the Art of Alexander Aksinin
• Igor Vvedensky Alexander Aksinin – A Meta-Graphic Artist
• Grzegorz Matuszak The World According to Alexander Aksinin
• Victor Krivulin Etchings of Alexander Aksinin // Toronto Slavic Quarterly, № 6, Fall 2003 (in Russian)

• Petition in June on YouTube. Video-art by Ilya Gimmelfarb, Boris Berger, Sergey Kuzminsky, 2003
• A. Aksinin in Pictures and Slides: Lvov-Tallinn, 1970s - 80s. Slideshow by Michael Zelen, 2009
• Drawn Graphics of Alexander Aksinin. Slideshow by Michael Zelen, 2012
• Reports on Precedents-Ethernity on YouTube. Collage Slideshow by Igor Vvedensky, 2013