Leonid Afremov - Artist

Leonid Afremov is an impressionistic artist, who grew up in Belarus and Israel. He tends to use a palette knife and oils to paint mainly landscapes, city scenes, seascapes, flowers and portraits.

As a child, Afremov took part in all the art classes offered in school, as well as taking private lessons from local artists. In 1973, he graduated from high school with honour and went onto the Vitebsk Education Institute where he studied in the arts and graphics department. In college he participated in many exhibitions run by the college and he even managed to sell some paintings. He graduated from this college in 1978 as an 'elite member'. From here he was given private lessons from the artist Barowski, as well as working as a label designer in a local beer and liquor factory. He also worked for a short time as a theatre set designer.

After this Afremov did freelance work for communal farms and schools, designing and making posters, themed rooms and walls for communist events and holidays. On top of this he made template sculptures of Lenin from plaster.

Throughout the winter, Afremov stayed at home. Because of his Jewish roots, he was unable to take part in any government exhibitions. As a result, his work was sold to family and friends and in the 1980's a lot of it was given away for free. Unfortunately he hadn't kept records of the work he produced and sold and therefore, even now he currently doesn't have picture from before 1990. Everyone would be amazed if anything has survived from before 1990, now.

In 1990, Afremov and his family migrated from Russia to Israel, due to racial tensions and anti-Semitism. This is where he restarted his career. Within a month he found a job in an advertising agency making signs and posters. When he finished here, he move onto working in a gallery shop. In the gallery shop he learnt to make frames.

Afremov then started to sell his work to galleries in Israel, however they paid him pittance, as he was a recent Russian immigrant. Yet again, suffering from social segregation as well as being exploited and discriminated against.

In the 1990's, he worked mainly with watercolours and acrylic, painting what people were buying. In 1994, out of pure desperation, Afremov's 16-year-old son tried to sell his father's paintings going door-to-door around the neighbourhood. This proved very effective and he started getting slightly better prices than he would have if still selling the to galleries.

In 1995, he managed to scrape together enough money to set up his own gallery and frame shop near where he lived. This was visited mostly by Russian immigrants, as is was unpopular with the Israeli's. This was shown by the number of times it got vandalised and broken into.

Even with his own art shop, he struggled to achieve complete artistic freedom. He had plenty of financial obligations and picky customers. Although, this all changed when he became friends with a Russian-speaking Israeli jazz musician, Leonid Ptashka. He inspired Afremov to paint a collection of portraits of popular jazz musicians, which helped him to secure a successful exhibition in the International Jazz Festival. Since Afremov has painted many of his own favourite musicians.

In 2001, Afremov's gallery got completely destroyed, ruining tonnes of paintings, art equipment was stolen and the entire building was turned into rubble. So him and his family decided to move to the USA in 2002. This where they finally gained the respect they deserved.

In the US, he sold many paintings to galleries, mostly those involving Judaic themes and musician portraits. Although he was still limited by what the galleries wanted, rather than what he wanted to paint.

In 2004, after his second son graduated high school, he was introduced to eBay by his friends. He then introduced this to his father. They sold a couple of painting via auction on eBay and this instantly gained a positive response, with his work being sold for hundreds, even thousands of dollars. This is when he got to paint whatever he wanted. From here he participated in local TV shows around the USA and his work also got used in psychiatric and psychological therapy procedures. As well as being published in art magazines and various medical and health magazines. Lastly he most recently launched his own website, selling giclees, prints and original paintings.

His work now is mostly influenced by 19th Century French Impressionism, as well as artists March Chagall and Modigliani. He has developed his own style and technique that tends to be very colourful and politically neutral and is now known as a self-representing artist.

References:
http://afremov.com/pages.php?pageid=2