Bio
Alex Kanevsky was born in the Soviet Union and studied mathematics at Vilnius University in Lithuania before coming to the United States. After arriving in Philadelphia in 1983, he worked as a Russian translator and illustrator, both for Psychiatric Nursing Magazine and drawing pictures for telephone book advertisements. After attending the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts (1989-93) and winning a Pew Fellowship (1997), he devoted himself to painting full time. Today, Kanevsky lives and works in New Hampshire. He has exhibited in the United States, Canada, Italy, the United Kingdom, France, Spain, Ireland, and Japan, and is represented by Hollis Taggart in New York and Dolby Chadwick Gallery in San Francisco.
Statement
“An artist attempts to create a visual language to speak of things that matter to him, in the hope that people will understand what is being said, even if the language remains foreign to them. Understanding this language does not require any special preparation on the part of a viewer. All that is needed is good will and a quiet space.
If I have the need to further comment on my own drawings, then I will have failed as an artist. Everything that I wanted to say is already in my work. Any additional words from me would dilute the impact and confound the meaning. I believe that drawings function where words fail and prefer that they have this opportunity.”
