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Alexander Konstantinov: Wandering Stones Opening Reception

May 29, 2021, 4:00pm – 5:30pm

Alexander Konstantinov (1953-2019) managed to build for himself three individual careers in the course of his short life -- that of a mathematician, an artist and an architect. Born in Moscow during the Soviet times, he chose to be a professor of mathematics and he continued teaching students in the Moscow Institute of Electronics and Mathematics, his alma mater, for over thirty years. At the same time, he was concerned with art since his early childhood, and, refusing to be subjected to constraints of the official Soviet art education, he received his art education from independent art studios in Moscow in 1970s and 80s. In the 1990s he worked as an artist creating sculptures, paintings and works on paper, and experimenting with new techniques and materials such as computer printing, plastic, photographic emulsion and light. He became one of the first contemporary Russian artists who, in 1992, right after the downfall of the Soviet Union, were invited to hold a personal exhibition in the main national museum, the Tretyakov Gallery.

In the early 2000s, Konstantinov entered the urban space and created large-scale public art installations -- gigantic drawings made with multi-colored tape, embedded in the architectural landscape of a city or a park. Since 2006, Konstantinov has been involved in architecture and has collaborated with leading architectural firms in Russia and internationally. Konstantinov's architectural projects continue the visual themes developed in his fine art. He always pays tribute to the history and traditions of a particular place, combining quotes from the local environment with references to world art. In the relatively short period from 2000 to 2019, Alexander Konstantinov created more than 30 public art installations and more than 25 architectural projects in 15 countries all over the world.

Parks form a special theme in Konstantinov's legacy. Among his projects are the reconstruction of the Moscow parks Sokolniki and Fili, together with the architectural bureau Yauzaproekt, and TurnPark Art Space for which Konstantinov was the primary architect. The project was realized with Art Forms Architecture and Ekaterina Vlasenko.