Born and raised in Moscow and a graduate of the Moscow State Stroganov Academy of Industrial and Applied Arts, Alexander Stozky (also known as “Zbyshek”) says that he started drawing four months before his birth – right on the inner surface of his mother’s belly. During childhood and adolescence, he painted mainly inside his head. He saw no point in the stuff of his imagination and no had desire to transfer it to paper or canvas.

“The first painting which had an influence on me and awakened the desire to create something in the concrete,” tells Alexander, “was an illustration in a magazine. It very realistically depicted a large bird flying in the sky. And it consisted of many small birds. From that moment on, I began to take art seriously. I have also been inspired by the output of artists Maurits Escher, René Magritte, Pablo Picasso and Wassily Kandinsky.”

Alexander inventively combines machinery, anatomy, geography and architecture in his paintings. Many a times it is difficult to understand what exactly is going on. Our sense of space is played with. Our perspective, challenged. All this just adds to the charm of the art.

“I want to create art that can engage the audience on both the conscious and subconscious levels,” Alexander explains. “I like making up networks that are similar to neural connections – giving birth to new thoughts, ideas, desires and discoveries. Pictures should be joyful and optimistic, expressive and meaningful. Ideally, they should contain an element of magic. Magic, for me, occurs when, while making art, I arrive at something that was not expected. It appears as if by itself, by accident or naturally. I like it when the painting seems to be alive and have a soul of its own.”

Alexander believes that art is about surprise and delight. He says: “I want to help the viewer of my work to remember something very important that he or she knew as a child, but then forgot.”

More on Alexander’s website (stozky.ru), Artmajeur profile (www.artmajeur.com/en/member/stozky) and Facebook page (www.facebook.com/zbyshek.stozky).