Alexander Timofeev

Merging his training in classical figurative painting with his love of noir comics, Alexander Timofeev produces enigmatic, filmic paintings, centered upon fragmented scenes of seduction, betrayal, death, passion, and dependency. It is no coincidence that each composition reads as a single frame in a larger film, stilled just before, or after, a dramatic, and often sinister, event. Working in series, he begins by writing a script, then assembles actors, costumes, and props, and stages photo shoots of its scenes. Timofeev’s paintings are based on the resulting photographs, and range from closely cropped images of a woman’s nervously clenched hands, as in Have you done this before? I (2013), to unsettling scenarios of children interacting with seemingly ill-intentioned adults, as in Generation Game (2007), which features a nude boy playing chess with a formally dressed man.