Alexander Terebenin

January 22, 1959, Leningrad, USSR – June 17, 2021, St. Petersburg.

Graduated from the Architectural College in Leningrad. A professional artist and photographer, Terebenin also created art objects and installations. He participated in over 70 exhibitions in Russia and internationally. His works are held in the collections of the Museum of the History of St. Petersburg, the Kolodzei Art Foundation (New York, USA), as well as in galleries and private collections in Russia, the United States, Israel, Germany, Finland, and other countries.

Terebenin curated several art projects, including The Conversion (St. Petersburg, 2012) and The Signal (St. Petersburg, 2014). In collaboration with artist Petr Belyi, he was nominated for the Innovation Prize — Russia’s most prestigious contemporary art award — for Best Curatorial Project of 2014.

“My interest in ruin and deconstruction appeared at the very beginning of my work in photography. I’m drawn to a certain sharpness and pain in these images, to the unexpectedly emerging graphic and color compositions — abstract or even surreal.

Over time, the growing number of images allowed me to group them into cycles and series. When I enter a new space, I almost automatically identify the objects and angles that demand to be captured.

Instead of the shame or disgust that these subjects often evoke in the average person, I experience a sense of delight and aesthetic satisfaction. This is not a perversion, but a way to see — and to show others — a broader spectrum of the Beauty that surrounds us.”

   A. Terebenin