Nikolay Cherednichenko
Nikolay Cherednichenko was born on 15 December 1958 in Nakhodka, into a military family. He graduated from an electromechanical college and served two years in the army. He then worked as a loader, carpenter, electrician, builder, radio operator and theatre sound engineer, founded a cooperative and became an entrepreneur. In 1989 he became interested in carving wooden sculpture from whole tree trunks.
Painting came into Cherednichenko's life when he was 32. He felt an irresistible urge to create. Early on Christmas morning in 1991, he finished his first painting, made with honey watercolour on a piece of plywood.
From then on, Cherednichenko was rarely without canvas, oil paint and a palette knife. His creative energy was so strong that he left a profitable business and spent almost every day at the easel. At times he worked through entire days without eating, drinking only coffee and smoking his pipe. This continued for years.
Exhibitions in Australia in 1995 and Switzerland in 1997 marked a turning point. In the museums of Perth, Sydney and Melbourne he was struck by the force and subtlety of Aboriginal colour. In Basel he saw paintings by Picasso, Matisse and Vallotton in person. After these journeys, conceptual works became more prominent, with echoes of his encounter with Aboriginal art.
In 2010, Cherednichenko and Natalia moved to a village in the Yaroslavl region. He built a one-storey studio there himself and immersed himself in his work, returning to Moscow only for business meetings.
CV
Selected exhibitions
- 2025 — Affordable Art Fair Battersea, Spring, London, with Galerie Fahid Taghavi
- 2025 — “Time Capsule”, top floor of River Park Kutuzovsky (under construction), Moscow
- 2024 — Solo exhibition, Galerie Fahid Taghavi, Geneva
- 2022 — Swiss Art Expo, Zurich
Representation
- 2024–2026 — Galerie Fahid Taghavi, Geneva
Collections
- Perth Art Gallery and Mandurah Art Gallery, Australia
- Kennedy Business Centre, USA
- International Art Foundation
- Private collections in the UK, Switzerland, Germany, the Czech Republic, Japan, Serbia, Turkey and Australia
Awards
- 2004, 2006, 2007 — Viktor Popkov Prize, Art of Russia competition
- International Art Foundation Prize
Texts and online
- 2025 — Anthony Fawcett, review
- Artsy · Saatchi Art · cherednichenko.art
“This is an artist one has to admire for his unflagging contribution to the global art world!”
Anthony FawcettBritish art critic — has worked with John Lennon, Yoko Ono, David Bowie, Andy Warhol and Charles Saatchi. 2025…the rural surroundings of Yaroslavl, far north of Moscow, where the painter, sculptor and polymath Nikolay Cherednichenko has made his home for many years now. Born in Nakhodka, Russia, in 1958, he began painting relatively late, at the age of thirty-two. After several sojourns in both Switzerland and Australia, Cherednichenko developed his signature style as a great colourist, shown off to great effect in his now famous series of landscapes, cityscapes and floral compositions.
I am particularly drawn to Cherednichenko’s series of cityscapes, works such as “On the Island” (oil on canvas, 70 × 60 × 2.5 cm, 2016), where multi-layers of liquid classical buildings dissolve, and are reflected in the luscious azure blue sea. Here is a masterful palette — greens, blues and yellows dancing off each other in a hot cauldron of summer magic!
Deeply religious, Cherednichenko’s oeuvre explores complex Christian themes: “I don’t like saying they were painted — they were painted through me,” the artist explained. “Every time I hope for a miracle, no matter the technique — there must be something incomprehensible, something beyond reason — to me, that’s the Holy Spirit.”
Early in his career Cherednichenko was captivated by wooden sculpture. Influenced by both Picasso and Dalí, his work fluctuated from narrative themes to purely bold and innovative abstract works. Sculpture has continued to be important to him: his wry, surrealist pieces in foam, cork and wood, such as “Orchid” and “Idea”, are great examples of a master’s touch.
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