Nikolai Blokhin

Saint Petersburg, Russia • b. 1968 • Russian School

Nikolai Blokhin was born in 1968 in Saint Petersburg, Russia, and is widely regarded as one of the most significant contemporary figurative artists to emerge from the Russian academic tradition. He received early training at a district art school before entering the prestigious Repin Institute, where he developed a rigorous academic foundation rooted in the techniques and ideals of Russia’s great masters from the late 19th and early 20th centuries.

Blokhin’s early work reflected a deep admiration for classical Russian art theory, as he searched for an expressive language grounded in traditional forms. His artistic direction shifted during his years at the Academy of Arts, where exposure to innovators who challenged academic convention allowed him to carve out his own distinctive visual voice. This evolution, bridging academic precision with contemporary emotional force, has become a hallmark of his mature style.

His achievements have received international recognition. Blokhin won the Grand Prize at the American Society of Portrait Artists’ 2002 competition at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, and again received the Grand Prize from the Portrait Society of America in Boston in 2004. His work continues to be celebrated for its technical mastery, expressive power, and its continuation of the Russian realist tradition into the 21st century.