Mikhail
Shemyakin

Most of his childhood passed in occupied East Germany, and then in the GDR. In 1957, the 14-year-old Mikhail returned to the USSR, to Leningrad. He was admitted to the secondary art school at the I.E. Repin Institute of Painting, Sculpture and Architecture, where he studied from 1957 to 1961. Has been expelled. In 1971 he was expelled from the USSR. At first he lived in Paris, then in the USA, since 1981 in New York, since 1991 in Claverack (en: Claverack, New York), New York. Mikhail Shemyakin was allowed to enter the USSR only in 1989, after 18 years of exile.

MIKHAIL SHEMYAKIN was born in 1943 in Moscow, grew up in occupied Germany, returned to St. Petersburg in 1956 and entered the Secondary Art School at the Academy of Arts. Repin. He was expelled from the Secondary School for not meeting the norms of Socialist Realism; in 1959 - 61 Shemyakin worked as a laborer. He was subjected to compulsory treatment in experimental hospitals. He has been a rigger for five years in the State Hermitage. In 1967, the artist creates the St. Petersburg Group and writes, together with the philosopher Vladimir Ivanov, the theory of Metaphysical Synthetism, dedicated to the creation of a new icon based on the study of religious art of all times and cultures.

In 1971, Shemyakin was expelled from the USSR. He lives and works in Paris, then in 1981 he moves to New York. In 1989 takes American citizenship. Exhibited in Europe, USA, Brazil, Japan, Hong Kong. Studies begun in the 60s, the art of all times and cultures, develop to a collection of millions of images organized in thematic, technical, historical and philosophical categories. The artist is awarded five honorary doctorates for these studies, which serve as the basis for the Institute of Philosophy and Psychology of Creativity. In 2002-2003 he created a series of programs for the television channel "Culture", the Imaginary Museum of Mikhail Shemyakin.

The return of Shemyakin's work to post-communist Russia began with the first official exhibition of his works from the moment of exile, in 1989. Later, he continues to exhibit in Russia and erects three monuments in St. Petersburg - Peter the Great (1991), Victims of Political Repression (195 ), Architects-First-Builders of St. Petersburg (1995): In 2001, his monument opens to the Children-victims of adult vices on Bolotnaya Square in Moscow. On the occasion of the 300th anniversary of St. Petersburg (2003), Tsarskaya promenade creates the composition for the Konstantinovsky Palace.

In New York, his Cybele stands: Goddess of Fertility (1993): in Paris, Carnival of St. Petersburg :: in London, Peter the Great (2001): in Normandy Peter the Great. (1991). For Hofstra University (Hempstead, New York), Shemyakin performs the monument Dialogue of Plato with Socrates (1998). For Venice - Giacomo Casanove (1998).

In 2001, at the Mariinsky Theater (St. Petersburg), Shemyakin staged a new version of Tchaikovsky’s Nutcracker ballet, then in 2005 he created the libretto and staging of a new ballet based on the same Hoffmann tale, The Magic Nut. In 2006, the Sofia Opera opens an evening of one-act ballets in the design of Shemyakin and with choreography by Donvena Pandursky.

Mikhail Shemyakin works in a wide range of equipment, from drawing to monumental sculpture and theater and cinema. The themes of his works are also diverse, from theatrical grotesque to metaphysical research.

Shemyakin's works are in the permanent collection of museums in the USA, Russia, France, Poland, and the CIS countries.