Alex Kanevsky

Alex Kanevsky (b. 1963) captures movement and time's constant flow in canvases that resist adherence to a single moment, or even a single reading. Like the unreliable nature of memory and the imprecise atmosphere of poetry, Kanevsky’s multilayered works provide more questions than answers. These paintings combine abstraction and figuration in layered, painterly compositions in which the artist strives to convey his own personal and particular view of the world with clarity. This process produces compositions that shimmer with a kind of Futurist velocity, while at the same time capturing a serene feeling of stillness.

Born in Russia in 1963, Kanevsky studied theoretical mathematics at Vilnius University in Lithuania before coming to the United States in the early 1980s. He settled in Philadelphia and began painting classes at the Philadelphia Academy of the Fine Arts (PAFA) in 1989. After receiving a Pew Fellowship in 1997, Kanevsky was able to devote himself to painting full time, and from 2002 to 2017, he served as an adjunct painting instructor at PAFA. The artist has had over twenty solo shows, and has exhibited his work throughout the United States, Canada, France, Italy, the United Kingdom, Spain, and Ireland. He lives and works in New Hampshire.