Alexander Kozlov was born in 1989 in Moscow to a family of artists. After graduating from the design department of the Textile University, he immersed himself in the world of cinema, theatre, and show decorations for nearly a decade, becoming the creator of architectural and design projects for the Tretyakov Gallery and others. Kozlov’s artistic style is a blend of avant-garde and design, with his form and materials evolving each year.
His early works bombard the viewer with myriad faces, masks, and heads, crafted using various techniques — acrylic, watercolour, charcoal on canvas, paper, markers, pencils, and cardboard. He even incorporates screens reminiscent of ancient Russian folding screens on wooden bases, adorned with gold leaf and varnish. As his career progressed, Kozlov began to focus more on figurative paintings, working in oils.
His characters gained depth, surrounded by interiors, landscapes, and still lifes. In 2023, he expanded his artistic expression beyond the two-dimensional plane, introducing sculptures into his oeuvre. He is currently working on a series of ceramic pieces.
The artist’s works depict a world lacking in detail, flexibility, variability, and — most crucially — love, which Kozlov considers the primary driving force of life. In 2023, Kozlov began collaborating with the Dubai art market, with his first project being a group exhibition titled Dialogues at Boccara Gallery in March 2024. At the exhibition, Kozlov’s recent works engaged in a dialogue with paintings by Ruslan Gudiev, Alexey Golovin, and others.
In May 2024, Kozlov’s solo exhibition Carousel was held at Dubai’s Bo Gallery. Through this exhibition, the artist presents a thought-provoking perspective, suggesting that life mirrors the rhythmic motion of a carousel — constantly turning, evolving, yet returning to familiar points. Using various artistic expressions, Kozlov invites the audience to contemplate the cyclical nature of existence.
Currently, he is working on a new series consisting of sculptures and paintings, exploring fantasy worlds and their inhabitants — reflecting on the possibility that their perception of the world may not be entirely different from ours, despite their inherent differences. This mirrors the way in which people living on the same planet can be vastly different from one another, as if from separate worlds.