Russian-American oil painter, Alexander Volkov, was born in St. Petersburg in 1960, and started painting with oil as a high school student. During his elementary and high school years, Alexander attended a special English school, graduating in 1986 from the Department of Physics at Leningrad State University. Upon graduating, Alexander worked as an animator at Leningrad Studio of Science Films and then later as a stage artist in a small Leningrad theatre. 1981 found Alexander exhibiting his paintings with a group of 200 Leningrad artists known as the "Brotherhood of Experimental Arts", a conglomeration of "underground" art groups active in Leningrad active at that time. Later, he joined a splinter group called "Ostrov" or "Island" which united 30 artists who felt that, ideologically, their work was neither socialist realism nor extreme avant garde. Alexander's lifelong fascination with architecture, landscape and still-life subjects, allow him to bring drama and poetic expression into his work. With his unique vision, he merges mood and atmosphere, evoking powerful emotions that create harmony. "There is no greater mystery to me than the conflict of light and dark. In the way they clash and penetrate each other, there is the source of everything. Whether I paint a landscape, a still-life or a portrait, within it there is always a story of light traveling through darkness." Alexander paints landscapes, portraits, genre paintings and commissioned works.