Artist: Alexander Antanenka

Title: A Home By The Water

Medium: Very Heavily Hand Embellished Giclee on Canvas

Signature:Hand-signed and Numbered by the artist on the verso of canvas

Limited Edition: 75

Image Size: Approximately 30 inches x 20 inches

Framed:Unframed on Unstretched Canvas

Year: 2011

Details: This work comes with a Certificate of Authenticity

Biography: Alexander Antanenka was born in the Soviet Union in the city of Brest on February 16, 1951. His father was a Soviet Pilot during World War Two and then later became a professor of mathematics at Brest University where he met his wife to be, a teacher of literature.

Alex showed an interest in art even as a young boy. He started drawing in pencil at the age of 5. He attended art school in Brest during grade school at which time he decided that painting would be his life. He went on to attend the Art Academy in Leningrad, (Saint Peterburg), Russia where he graduated at the top of his class in 1978.

Alex was living a happy and content life with his wife ad young daughter in the Soviet city of Minsk as a professional artist when the Chernobyl disaster claimed both his parents’ lives, who lived only twenty miles from the accident site. He experienced deep anger toward the Soviet government because of its attempt to cover up the Chernobyl disaster and its terrible effects of not evacuating immediately those who lived in the fallout zones. Very soon after this tragedy, he fled to Siberian city of Magadan to start a new life. This city was used as a place of exile by the Soviet government for various artists, poets, and politicians whose works and ideas were not of Soviet exactness. It is here, in the city of Magadan, where Alex’s work changed to reflect his emotional state of anger and sadness. His previous works were of bright, soothing landscapes which changed to dark, and dramatic. While in Magadan the Japanese showed a great interest in his art, but KGB forbid Alex to conduct an exhibition in that country.

Not long after the collapse to the Soviet Union, Alex moved with his family back to the city of Minsk, Belarus. From here he was able to conduct exhibits of his work in many former Soviet cities, including Magadan in 1990, Vladivostok in 1992, Khabarovsk in 1993, Minsk and Brest in 1996, Moscow at the Kremlin in 1997, and Saint Petersburg in 1998.

His paintings are held in many private collections throughout the world including the countries of Belgium, Czech Republic, Germany, Holland, Israel, Italy, Japan, Poland, Russia and USA.