Valery Konevin

Valery KONEVIN was born 16 July 1952 into an upper middle-class family in Leningrad.

His grand grandfather Dimitry Kosorotov was the Chief Pathologist of Russia in St. Petersburg and performed most historical autopsies including of Gregory Rasputin. Grandfather Michael Tuberovsky was famous playwrighter of fairy tales in Leningrad who encouraged Valery’s early art career.

By his own choice Valery started a science career after graduation the Aircraft Design and Production faculty at the Kazan State Technical University, at 1975 and took part in designing of the first soviet flying rocket in 1978. He was involved in designing helicopters and super sonic aircrafts too.

After serving two years in the Soviet Army as an officer of an Strategical Rocket Division he studied philosophy, biology, mathematics in his free time and unexpectedly dropped his science career in 1980, entered Art Academy in Leningrad, took part in Underground art activity and forced to leave USSR in 1990, thanks to Perestroika and expiring 10 years of his Top Secret conspiracy agreement.

He immigrated to Israel where he attracted attention of art critics and become internationally recognized artist, traveling to USA, UK, France, Germany and participating in numerous expositions as a visual artist and a photographer.

He lives and works in Belgium, Oostende since 1994. He won the Nikon Photography Contest International’s award in 1998 in Japan and his paintings and photos are in international museums including many private collections around the world. His artistic language is unmistakable, unique, bearing traces of his early theatrical childhood memories. His abstract paintings are result of the mathematical “primary (base) art”, the approach based on fusion of topology and biology as archetypes and transcendental objects of the mind.

Education: 1969-1975	MSc in Aircraft Engineering, Tupolev State University, Kazan, Russia
1985-88	"Muchin" Art Academy of St. Petersburg (monumental sculpture faculty) (Non-official education by political reasons)
Professional experience: 1975-78	Engineer Designer of rockets & aircrafts
1978-80	Military Service as an officer of a strategical rocket division
1980-83	Scene Designer of Yekaterinburg Academical Theatre
1983-85	Designer of Recreation Areas in Forestry of Yekaterinburg
1985-90	Municipality Carpenter in St. Petersburg (in order to have an independent art studio). Takes part in Underground movement of the city. Works at Pushkinskaia 10, famous first independent art community in Leningrad, later "The Museum of Nonconformist Art", St. Petersburg
1990	Immigrated with the family to Tel-Aviv, Israel and became a professional artist
Artistic Residencies:
1952-90	St. Petersburg, Kazan, Yekaterinburg, Novosibirsk. Russia
1990-91	Tel-Aviv. Israel
1991-92	NY. USA
1992	Paris. France
1993	London. UK
1994-present time	Lives & works in Oostende. Belgium

Fellowship & Awards:

1984	Membership in Youth Department of Union of Artists ofUSSR. Ekaterinburg, Russia
1986	Membership in the Fellowship for Experimental Art "Tovarishchestvo" Underground Artists of Leningrad. St. Petersburg, Russia
1990	Membership in Israel's Union of Artists. Tel-Aviv, Israel
1998	Award "Honorably Mentioned" in Nikon International Photo contest Category B. Tokio, Japan

Works in Public Collections:

The Metropolitan Museum
NY, USA

The Russian Museum
St. Petersburg, Russia

The Museum of Contemporary Art
Moscow, Russia

Siemens A.G
Erlangen, Germany

Nikon Corporation
Tokyo, Japan

The Haifa University
Haifa, Israel

The Jewish Museum of Belgium
Brussels, Belgium

"The Zionist Organisation of America" House
Tel-Aviv, Israel

The Diamond Center
Tel-Aviv, Israel

"The Museum of Nonconformist Art" Pushkinskaia 10, St. Petersburg