Mihail Aleksandrov

Mihail Aleksandrov was born in Vilnius, Lithuania, in 1949. He grew up surrounded by the forests, rivers, old churches, and Baroque and Gothic architecture of Vilnius—images that stayed with him and gradually became part of his visual language.

He began studying art as a child, attending evening classes at the Vilnius Art School before continuing his education in Vilnius. Alongside painting, he studied literature and history, interests that remained closely connected to the way he thought about art. Those years became a period of searching and discovery, as painting increasingly became a way for him to explore the visible world while developing his own voice.

During this time, Aleksandrov became increasingly interested in symbolism and the idea that a painting could suggest something beyond the physical world. His figures often became less like portraits and more like memories, archetypes, or spiritual presences. By the late 1970s, painting had become the center of his life, and he began exhibiting and selling his work professionally.

In 1979, Aleksandrov was permitted to leave the Soviet Union, and in 1980 he arrived in the United States, first settling in Los Angeles. The move marked the beginning of a new chapter in his life and career, giving him the freedom to continue developing a deeply personal body of work shaped by memory, poetry, symbolism, architecture, and the inner life of the human figure.