Alexander Chekmenev

Alexander Chekmenev (1969, Luhansk) is one of the main Ukrainian contemporary photographers. He started his career as a photographer in 1988 in a small photo studio in Luhansk. After returning from the army in 1993 was hired as a photographer in the Luhansk complex of art and industrial services. In 1997 moved to Kyiv, where he lives and works as a photojournalist now. His work has been published in New York Times Lens Blog, Time Magazine and Time Light Box, New Yorker Photo Booth, MSNBC, Quartz and others. A considerable part of his legacy is a unique archive of life in 90’s Ukraine with all the toughness and imperfections of the socio-political situation during those times. But Chekmenev is interested not only in “the times” in general—he puts a value on the characters of a period. The participant of UPHA—Ukrainian Photographic Alternative independent group. In 2014 he received the Grand Prix "Photographer of the Year of Ukraine 2013". His works were acquired by Mystetskyi Arsenal (Kyiv, Ukraine), MOKSOP (Kharkiv) Märkisches Museum Witten and Ludwig Museum (Germany). Author of Donbas (2011) and Passport (2017), Lilies (2020) and “Pharmakon / Ambulance” (2021) photobooks.

2021 We All Once Lived, The Naked Room, Kyiv

2020 Pamiršta žemė / Forgotten Land, Klaipeda CCC, Klaipeda, Lithuania (curator—Darius Vaičekauskas, co-curator—Sergiy Lebedynskyy)

2019 Photo on the Passport, Kyiv History Museum, Kyiv
Deleted, Ukrainian House, Kyiv
State Litarature Museum, Odesa, Ukraine (curators—Sergiy Lebedynskyy, Oleksandra Osadcha, Katerinda Radchenko)
Transit (together with Viktor and Sergiy Kochetov), Odesa Photo Days

2017 Passport, Folia Gallery, Paris, France (series Passport)

2016 Blue Sky Gallery, Portland, USA (series Donbass and Passport)

2015 Palffy Palace, Bratislava, Slovakia (series Donbas)

2014 Mad World, Clara Maria Sels gallery, Düsseldorf, Germany

2012 Joseph Huber Sura/Alexander Chekmenev DONBAS, Clara Maria Sels gallery, Düsseldorf, Germany (series Donbas)

2007 Black and White Photography, Yagallery, Kyiv

2001 Zamek gallery, Poznan, Poland (series Easter, Passport, Lilies, Blind, Portraits, Miners)

2000 Poprad, Slovakia (series Passport, Lilies)

2019 Between Fire and Fire: Ukrainian Art Now, Semperdepot, Vienna, Austria
Suwon Photo festival, Suwon, South Korea
Grenoble Photomonth, La Maison de l’Image, Grenoble, France
UPHA Made in Ukraine, AKT art space, Kyiv

2018 A Space of One's Own, PinchukArtCentre, Kyiv
Vom Auf- und Abstieg (together with Clemens Botho Goldbach, Olaf Metzel), Märkischen Museum in Witten, Witten, Germany
Permanent Revolution. Ukrainian art today, Ludwig Museum, Budapest, Hungary
Image Singulieres, Entrepôts Larosa, Set, France

2017 Research Platform: Anonymous Society, PinchukArtCentre, Kyiv

2016 Suwon Photo festival, Suwon, South Korea

2014 Euromaidan: The True Story, 8BIT Gallery, Kyiv
Shift: Ukraine in Crisis, Third Floor Gallery, Cardiff, Great Britain
LEGACY: Russia, Ukraine, Georgia, & The Caucasus, Newcastle upon Tyne, Great Britain
I’m Drop in the Ocean—Art of the Ukrainian Revolution, Vienna Künstlerhaus, Vienna, Austria

2013 The look behind | Der Blick dahinter, Märkischen Museum in Witten, Witten, Germany

2012 First Kyiv Biennial of Contemporary Art “Arsenale-2012”, Mystetskyi Arsenal, Kyiv

2010 3rd Festival of Documentary Photographs, Poznan, Warsaw, Poland
Якщо, Если, If, Contemporary art museum PERMM, Perm, Russia

2008 4×4. Ukrainian Contemporary Photography, House of Photography, Vilnius, Lithuania

2000 European competition of documentary photography, Vevey, Switzerland

1994 1 lace in Ukrpressphoto contest, New Names category, Kyiv