Oleksandr Balbyshev was born in 1985 in Ukraine. After graduating from The Prydniprovska State Academy of Civil Engineering and Architecture in 2012, he was working in the sphere of architecture and design. But he was disappointed in the chosen field. So in 2016 he quit to become an artist. Oleksandr currently lives and works in Dnipro, Ukraine. Male sexuality and sensuality are the most important themes in Oleksandr’s art. But it’s a means rather than an end in itself. Artist wants viewer to see the realm of ideas in faces and bodies not only a realistic image of a human. He tries to combine in his paintings realities, as visions of worlds within worlds. They show us an image of ourselves, and also hint that there is more to us than we know. Another important part of Oleksandr’s art is to modify old Soviet-era portraits of Lenin. In 2015 the Ukrainian government banned all symbols and images associated with the USSR. But numerous oil portraits, sculptures, monuments and other images of Lenin began to be removed from public places decades before the «decommunization laws». Oleksandr is looking for all these forgotten things and giving them a new life. Education: Bachelor of Architecture — Prydniprovska State Academy of Civil Engineering and Architecture (2012)