Mihail Chemiakin is a Russian painter best known for his Nonconformist, Surrealist, brilliantly colored compositions of figures, iconography, and space. Eschewing formal conventions of style and formality, Chemiakin draws inspiration and imagery from the canon of Western art history, often citing disconnected periods, figures, tropes, and conventions in his canvases. In his 1977 print Philosophy of the Sea 1 1977, for example, the artist includes the aesthetics of Cubism and Francis Bacon alongside the coded conventions of historical still-life painting. Born on May 4, 1943 in Moscow, Russia, Chemiakin's early life was marked by frequent travel, in part due to his family's military service. After study at the Il’ya Repin Institute of Painting, Sculpture and Architecture in present-day St. Petersburg, he gained notoriety by renouncing the popular Soviet style of Socialist Realism, and went on to become involved with the St. Petersburg Group of artists, wherein he developed the aesthetic treatise of Metaphysical Synthesism. Chemiakin currently lives and works in France.