Alexey Martins
Alexey Martins graduated from the Painting Faculty of the Krasnoyarsk Art School and later studied at the Free Workshops Contemporary Art School at the Moscow Museum of Modern Art. Now he is based between Moscow and London.
Martins explores themes of ecological crisis, regional identity, and cultural transformation. He works in a variety of media, including painting, sculpture, and installation. His practice is characterized by a sensitive and poetic engagement with landscape, memory, and material. He often uses reclaimed or natural materials — such as wood, graphite, and organic textures — to evoke a sense of place and environmental vulnerability. His visual language blends biomorphic abstraction with minimalist restraint, often referencing Siberian landscapes and their transformation through human activity.
Among Martins’ solo exhibitions are Space Combat (2010), Mental Firewood (2015–2017), Heat Forms (2018), Polar Explorer’s (2019), and Sunspots (2020), many of which were shown at Fragment Gallery (Moscow) and Otdel Gallery (Krasnoyarsk). He has participated in over 20 group exhibitions, including the Moscow Biennale of Young Art (2017), The Main Project at the New Tretyakov Gallery, Krasnoyarsk Biennale (2019), and several site-specific projects at Nikola-Lenivets. His works are held in major public collections including the State Tretyakov Gallery, Moscow Museum of Modern Art, and the Krasnoyarsk Museum Center.
Notable sales and auction records:
— The Tretyakov Gallery— The Moscow Museum of Modern Art (MMOMA)
Artworks and Paintings
Biography and Artistic Career Highlights
Alexey Martins was born in 1989 in Krasnoyarsk, Siberia, Russia. His childhood took place in an industrial city surrounded by powerful nature — hills, taiga, the Yenisei River. The contrast between the living natural forces and the harsh industrial environment shaped the foundation of his future artistic worldview. During his school years, he showed an interest in drawing and gradually decided to dedicate his life to art.
2000s — studied at the Krasnoyarsk Art School, where he received academic training in painting and drawing.
Mid-2000s — moved to Moscow and studied at the “Free Workshops” School of Contemporary Art at the Moscow Museum of Modern Art. There he became acquainted with contemporary artistic practices and began to develop his own language.
2010s — active participation in the art scene, experimenting with graphics, painting, and objects.
2015 — nominated for the Kandinsky Prize in the category “Young Artist. Project of the Year” for a joint project with Igor Lazarev titled “How to Talk About Art with a Siberian City.” This experience solidified his reputation as an artist working with the theme of regional identity.
2017 — awarded the Ruinart Art Patronat Grant for the project “Black Diptych (Black Forest and Black Sky),” dedicated to memory and the interaction between humans and nature.
2017–2019 — participated in international exhibitions and contemporary art fairs, including Cosmoscow. His works began to be exhibited abroad, attracting the attention of collectors.
2020 — solo exhibition “Sunspots” at Fragment Gallery, Moscow, where the artist presented new works exploring the cycles of nature and their symbolic reflection in human experience.
2020s — development of practice in mixed media: sculptures from old wooden boards, installations, painting. His focus is on the interaction between humans and the environment, ecology, and cultural memory.
Today, Alexey Martins takes part in exhibitions in Moscow, Krasnoyarsk, and abroad. His art is based on personal memory, regional experience, and philosophical reflections on the place of humans in the world. His works are included in private and museum collections, and his name is increasingly associated with a new generation of Siberian artists who are rethinking local identity and the global challenges of modernity.
