Alexander Melamid (russian: Алекса́ндр Дани́лович Мелами́д) (born July 14, 1945) is a
Russia
Russia (, , ), or the Russian Federation, is a transcontinental country spanning Eastern Europe and Northern Asia. It is the largest country in the world, with its internationally recognised territory covering , and encompassing one-eig ...
n-born
Conceptualist and
performance artist
Performance art is an artwork or art exhibition created through actions executed by the artist or other participants. It may be witnessed live or through documentation, spontaneously developed or written, and is traditionally presented to a pu ...
.
Melamid was born into a Jewish family of , a Soviet historian living in
Moscow
Moscow ( , US chiefly ; rus, links=no, Москва, r=Moskva, p=mɐskˈva, a=Москва.ogg) is the capital and largest city of Russia. The city stands on the Moskva River in Central Russia, with a population estimated at 13.0 millio ...
. In his early life, he attended the
Stroganov Art Institute, where he collaborated with
Vitaly Komar in the Russian
Sots art
Often referred to as “Soviet Pop Art”, Sots Art or soc art (russian: Соц-арт, short for Socialist Art) originated in the Soviet Union in the early 1970s as a reaction against the official aesthetic doctrine of the state— socialist ...
movement (a parallel to the Western
pop art movement). Known as a cynical
Social Realist
Social realism is the term used for work produced by painters, printmakers, photographers, writers and filmmakers that aims to draw attention to the real socio-political conditions of the working class as a means to critique the power structure ...
, Melamid began collaborating with Komar in the late 1960s; the two emigrated together to
New York City
New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the most densely populated major city in the Un ...
from the
Soviet Union
The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, ...
in 1977. The duo created collaborative works as "
Komar and Melamid
Komar and Melamid (pronunciation: ''Kómar and Melamíd'') is a tandem team of Russian-born American conceptualist artists Vitaly Komar (born 1943) and Alexander Melamid (born 1945). In an artists' statement they said that "even if only one of us ...
". In 2003, the two artists decided to go their separate ways. Around this time, Melamid's first-born son, Dan, introduced him to the world of hip-hop, which included his clients and close friends
Whoo Kid and
50 Cent. Melamid was intrigued by hip-hop society because of its rich history and world appeal, and began to paint the hip-hop portraits that have become his first solo exhibition since splitting with Komar, on display at the
Museum of Contemporary Art Detroit
The Museum of Contemporary Art Detroit (MOCAD) is a non-collecting contemporary art museum located in Detroit.
MOCAD is housed in a building, a converted former auto dealership designed by architect Andrew Zago. The architecture of the building ...
.
Alexander is currently working in Chelsea, NYC at his Art Healing Ministry. Recent new series of works include "Heaven and Hell" and "The Art of Plumbing."
The Art of Plumbing
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References
Sources
1945 births
Artists from Moscow
Russian performance artists
American people of Russian-Jewish descent
Social realist artists
Living people
20th-century Russian painters
Russian male painters
Russian contemporary artists
American male painters
American contemporary painters
20th-century Russian male artists
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