Alexander Ponomarev

Born 1957 in Dnepropetrovsk, Ukraine

 

Alexander Ponomarev graduated from the USSR Nautical Engineering College in 1979. His subsequent career as a seaman left an indelible mark on his artistic output, dominated by epic aquatic installations, none more spectacular than Maya: A Lost Island (2002) where, with the help of the Russian Fleet and an army of smoke canisters, Ponomarev provoked the disappearance of an island in the Barents Sea.

His psychedelic, light-flashing, sing-song submarine surfaced in the Tuileries Gardens during Paris FIAC in 2006, then in Moscow during the 2007 Biennale. Ponomarev also starred at the 60th Lisbon’s Expo-98 and the hugely popular Russian Pavilion at last year’s Venice Biennale, before enjoying his first New York solo show in May 2008.

Shortly after erecting a 100ft periscope beneath the dome of a Baroque Church in Paris during the 2007 Festival d’Automne, he was named Officier des Arts et de Lettres by France’s Minister of Culture.




Alexander Ponomarev, "The Northern Trace of Leonardo", the Barents Sea, the Arctic Ocean, action-installation, photo, 130x90 cm, 1996.