Alexander Kaletski
Alexander Kaletski is a Russian-American artist who was born in Soviet Russia in 1946. Before focusing on his fine arts career, he studied acting and had a successful stage, television, and film production career in Russia. Because of the risk of prosecution, he fled to the USA in 1975. The world beyond the Iron Curtain seemed innovative and inspiring to Kaletski. He started to create contemporary paintings. As he had no financial stability to buy materials for creating his artworks, he started using commercial packaging, mainly cardboard boxes, to create works that he covered with lines and color to convey the intended meaning. These works became extremely entertaining to viewers, as they had the power to provoke but also to amuse spectators with the humor they embodied. Since the opening of his first exhibition named Cardboard People at the Dillon Gallery in NYC in 1996, Kaletski has had numerous exhibitions worldwide. He made artworks in a variety of techniques and styles. Nevertheless, the figurative paintings he made on cardboards have been highly associated with him, symbolizing his creativeness and persistence.
