Leonid Afremov

Biography

Leonid Afremov Russian-American Painter

Afremov is a very prolific painter, he has made about 4,000 paintings since 1995. His style of painting has some influence from Marc Chagall, Modigliani, Monet, Renoir, Malevitch and other 19th century impressionists.

He likes to paint cityscapes, landscapes, seascapes and also he loves to paint portraits of musicians. He gets inspired by Jazz music and in fact he is a huge jazz fan.

His paintings have been in exhibitions all over the world. The history of his life has inspired several documentaries and videos that describe his personality, the places to where he has travelled and his anecdotes.

Leonid uses palette-knife instead of regular brushes to put paint on canvas. Palette-knife itself is intended to be used for cleaning old paint from canvas.

It is very rare that any artist ventures to use it as an instrument in painting together with a brush, and it is even more rare that any artist uses it as his only instrument.

Afremov personality reflects his unusual technique which was developed and perfected many over years of hard work. His artistic style is unique and easily recognized.

Working with palette-knife gives fantastic possibilities, but it is also fantastically difficult to master. It took 10 years for Leonid Afremov to build up his palette-knife handling skill up to the level that it is now.

Looking at the paintings of Leonid Afremov, it is difficult to believe that all small details on them were literally carved out from paint with little steel blades, the smallest of which is only 1.5 inches long.

His painting technique is accepted by specialists to be completely unique and not capable of being copied. He even does not really need to sign his artwork, it impossible to confuse it with other painters work or to forge.

By the words of the Artist, he enjoys traveling most of anything else. Traveling fills out his soul with all the energy he needs to create fabulous art.

Leonid Afremov in his own words:

“I enjoy painting cityscapes, landscapes and seascapes. I also love painting portraits of musicians.

I paint because this is what I love to do. I have been painting since I was a kid and my dream was to become a well known professional artist.”

The love for life and art inspires me to create the most. I also get inspired form Jazz music. I am a huge jazz fan.

In my art, I am looking to express my inner self and create a moving illusion in a painting. I like making my art so that you can feel and see the action in the painting in motion.

I have tried different techniques during my career, but I especially fell in love with painting with oil and pallette-knife”.

“Every artwork is the result of long painting process; every canvas is born during the creative search; every painting is full of my inner world.

Each of my paintings brings different mood, colors and emotions.

I love to express the beauty, harmony and spirit of this world in my paintings. My heart is completely open to art.

Thus, I enjoy creating inspired and beautiful paintings from the bottom of my soul. Each of my artworks reflects my feelings, sensitivity, passion, and the music from my soul.

True art is alive and inspired by humanity. I believe that art helps us to be free from aggression and depression.”

Group Exhibitions in the former USSR:

1977 Students' Anniversary Exhibition, Vitebsk 1988 Exhibition of Soviet Artists' Union, Vitebsk 1989 Exhibition of Soviet Artists' Union, Vitebsk 1990 Exhibition of Soviet Artists' Union, Vitebsk 1989 Exhibition of Judaica-based Paintings, Moscow

Group Exhibitions in Israel:

1991 Amaliya Alber Art Gallery 1992 Exhibition of Judaica-based Paintings, Ramat-Gan Museum 1994 Exhibition of Judaica-based Paintings, Tel-Aviv Museum 1997 Anniversary Exhibition, Ashdod Museum

Personal Exhibitions in Israel:

1991 Arts Center, Ramat-Gan 1993 "Gistadrut" Club, Tel-Aviv1994 "Lapid" Art Gallery, Ashdod1995 "Dilon" Art Gallery, Jaffo1996 "Dilon" Art Gallery, Jaffo1997 "Beit Opera" Art Gallery, Tel-Aviv 1998 "Beit Opera" Art Gallery, Tel-Aviv 1999 “Ofir" Art Gallery, Ramat-Aviv 2000 Tel-Aviv Museum 2001 Ashdol Museum

Biography

Leonid was born in city of Vitebsk, Belarus in 1955, the same town where Marc Chagall was born. His parents were Bella and Arkadiy Afremov. They were not artists. His mother was an engineer and his father was a shoemaker.

He started painting when he was seven years old in elementary school.

Initially, he took painting lessons in high school and after that, he studied at the “Vitebsk Art Institute”, founded by Marc Chagall in 1918.

During the soviet times in Russia, education was completely free and even after graduating, he was able to get a job assigned by the government.

He graduated in 1979 from the Vitebsk Art School, his major was in Art Education. He was trained more to be a teacher than an artist.

After that he took private lessons from local famous artist Barowski, who was teaching art when Marc Chagall was still living in Vitebsk.

During his college years and after graduating, he started working making theatrical sets and official propaganda posters

Life and career in Soviet Russia from 1976 to 1990

In 1975 Afremov met his wife to be, Inessa Kagan, who he married the following year. In 1977 his first son Dmitry was born. The young family lived in a 2 room apartment together with Inessa’s parents, grandmother and sister.

In 1982 they bought their own home where they lived until 1990. After graduating from college, Afremov worked as a label designer in a local beer and liquor factory. Then he briefly worked in a local theater as a set designer.

In the early 1980’s he started doing free lance work for communal farms and schools, designing and making various propaganda posters, themed rooms and walls for certain communist events and holidays.

He was also doing template sculptures of Lenin from plaster. He had a very good reputation in that field and was invited back by many farms and schools. This type of work was available only during the summer and spring. In November 1984 his second son Boris was born.

During the cold Russian winter, Afremov stayed at home painting. He was not allowed to participate in government exhibitions because of his Jewish roots and was not allowed to be a member of the local art associations.

His early work was sold privately via family and friends and was not seen by many people. A lot of his work in the 1980’s was just given away for free. He did not keep records of his work then and not much of it survived. He currently does not have pictures of anything before 1990.

In 1986 the Chernobyl disaster happened. Vitebsk was only a few hundred kilometers from Chernobyl, close enough for radiation to travel with the wind and rain. The ecological situation in the area worsened, local crops and water becoming contaminated with radioactive fallout.

Small children were affected strongly, including Afremov's two year old son. At the same time Leonid Afremov was experiencing serious problems due to his Jewish heritage.

The liberal politics of Mikhail Gorbachev allowed Jewish soviet citizens to migrate to Israel in the late 1980s. Due to anti-semitism and problems caused by radiation, Leonid decided to move to Israel, as soon as the doors were opened.

On May 14th, 1990 the Afremov family left by train from Minsk to Warsaw where they stayed in a hostel for 3 days. Then on May 17th, 1990 they took a flight to Israel provided by the Israeli immigration authorities.

Life and career in Israel from 1990 to 2002 On May 17th, 1990 the Afremov family entered Israel at Ben Gurion International Airport. They had to give up their Soviet citizenship in favor of Israeli. To this day, Leonid Afremov and his family are citizens of Israel only.

Leonid Afremov found a job in an advertisement agency making signs and posters. After working in an advertisement agency, he worked in a gallery shop where he learned to make frames and he was introduced to the palette knife for the first time.

Because he was a recent Russian immigrant, the locals considered his work as having little value. Galleries took his paintings for 15 US$ but then they were reselling them for 150 to 1500 US$.

He tried to sell his paints at street fairs and exhibitions in local social clubs. However, it was difficult because of the social stigma of Russian immigrants. His wife was forced to take a low-paying job in a textile factory.

During the early 1990s, Leonid Afremov was mainly working with watercolors and acrylic. He was experimenting very little with usage of the palette knife. He was painting what people were buying, with very little artistic freedom.

In 1994, his 16-year-old son Dmitry tried to sell Leonid’s paintings door to door around the neighborhood, This practice proved itself very effective, and Afremov suddenly started selling many pieces he painted and was getting slightly better money than from selling directly to galleries.

Dmitry proved himself to be a good door-to-door salesman. He was selling Leonid’s paintings in the new neighborhoods where recent Russian Immigrants were living. In 1995, Leonid acquired enough funds to open his own gallery and frame shop in Ashdod. The gallery was not popular among local Israelis; it was mainly visited by fellow Russian immigrants.

The gallery was vandalized and broken into on several occasions. The local Israeli newspapers were refusing to publish advertisements for Afremov's Gallery, and he was mainly advertising via Russian immigrant press and radio station. However, artistic freedom could not be achieved completely.

During the late 1990s, Leonid was constantly holding exhibitions in Russian community centers around Israel.

During this time he already worked mainly with a palette knife and oils, he began establishing a unique artistic identity, however it was difficult to paint what he wanted because of the financial obligations and the picky customers.

Around 1999, Leonid became friend of Russian-speaking Israeli jazz musician Leonid Ptashka, who inspired Afremov to paint a collection of portraits of popular jazz musicians and helped him secure a successful exhibition in the International Jazz Festival in Ashdod.

Since then, Leonid Afremov has painted dozens of his favorite musicians.

In March 2001, Afremov's gallery was completely vandalized. Dozens of paintings were destroyed, the artistic equipment stolen and the facility turned into rubble.

Then Leonid decided it was time to move somewhere else where he could be treated with deserved respect, eventually He moved to the USA in January 2002.

Life and career in USA from 2002 to 2010

Leonid Afremov was preparing his move to USA very carefully. For several months he did not sell any paintings, everything he painted he sent to his sister in Brooklyn. When he arrived in the USA in January 2002, he had more than one hundred paintings at his disposal.

Leonid and his son were systematically going from one gallery to another in New York. They found galleries that liked and purchased paintings, however they only took jewish themes and musician portraits. Afremov found himself forced to paint only limited themes and subjects for living.

Leonid had good opportunities in New York but the cold climate affected his health. He was constantly struggling with arthritis and muscular pain caused by drastic temperature changes. Thus he moved to Fort Lauderdale in April 2002,

The rest of the family joined him a few months later. In Florida, Afremov faced the same changeless like in New York, selling only certain themes and subjects that the galleries wanted and were able to sell.

In 2004, after graduating high school, Leonid’s son Boris was introduced to e-Bay by his friends. They tried to sell a couple of paintings by auction and immediately received positive approval. Paintings were sold for hundreds and sometimes thousands of dollars and everything sold without exception.

For the first time Afremov was given the opportunity to paint what he really wanted. At this point the real artistic journey began. He began painting what he really wanted from his personal inspirations and finally was able to explore his artistic vision and abilities all the way.

The exposure on e-Bay gave him opportunities for commission orders and access to different galleries. However, because of negative experiences with galleries, Leonid preferred to sell directly to the collector. Thanks to the internet exposure, Afremov participated in various local TV shows around the USA.

His art was declared very relaxing and calm by notable psychologists and psychiatrists who make use of his painting in various psychological and psychiatric therapy procedures. Afremov's paintings were published not only in art magazines but also in various medical and health magazines as examples of stress reducing paintings.

In 2005 following a successful year, the Afremov family moved to Boca Raton. In the same year, they started taking their first family vacations in Cancun and Playa del Carmen.

In 2007 with the help of his sons Leonid lunched his own personal site where he began selling prints and original painting, eventually moving all the business and attention to his personal site. Two years later Leonid underwent heart bypass procedures. The doctors recommended Leonid to stay away from managing a business, keep a calm lifestyle and ultimately retire. Since then his sons Boris and Dmitry have been handling his sales and business aspects like customer service and shipping.

Recent life and career in Mexico

In 2005 Leonid Afremov vacationed in Playa del Carmen and Cancun for the first time. Since then he was visiting the Mexican Caribbean two to three times a year and completely fell in love with the area.

Eventually in March 2010 Leonid decided to take an early retirement recommended by his doctors and He moved to Playa del Carmen, a popular resort town near Cancun.

His children were involved in his business to the point that they had to move to Mexico as well. His children manage his virtual gallery and shipping office in Playa del Carmen.

The Afremov’s also have locations in Cancun and Cozumel where they sell art during the busy tourist season in the winter. Leonid found Caribbean Mexico very relaxing and stress free to spend his time painting.

In 2011 Leonid sponsored the construction of his own personal ranch near Puerto Morelos (Cancun) where he spends much of his time. He also opened there an “Art School and Resort”, where he teaches his painting experience and creativity to many students attending his courses.

The permanent southern sun filled with colors and brightness has made Leonid's paintings positive and joyous. The artist himself is a convinced optimist and this can be easily seen in his creative artworks. His paintings make viewers feel lighter and more positive.

“I am currently living in Playa del Carmen, Quintana Roo, Mexico. I love the Caribbean sea, and all my life I dreamt of living on the coast of this sea.”

At the entrance of “Quinta Leonid Afremov”,his ranch near Cancun, México

Teaching at his Art School

Paintings Gallery

Blue Rhapsody

Tango

Ballerina

Music Band

Night Enigma

When dreams come true

Night Cafe

Two Sisters

Fishing on the lake

Corsica

Bridges of Amsterdam

Saventem Castle - Brussels

Golden Gate Bridge

Central Park

Bruges – The Northern Venice

Paris

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AVM 12.05.2012Bibliographyhttp://www.afremov.com/

Music:Beethoven’s Silence – Ernesto CortazarMusical Offering - Canon 2, Johann Sebastian BachCello Suite No.1 – Prelude, Johann Sebastian Bach