Biography
Vladimir Gruzdev was born on 14 July 1951 in St. Petersburg (Leningrad). He graduated from the Leningrad Institute of Aviation Instrumentation in 1974. For some time he combined painting with scientific work, taking part in private apartment exhibitions and exhibitions of nonconformist art. In 1989 he left his scientific career to devote himself fully to art.
Since 1989 Vladimir Gruzdev has taken part in around a hundred group exhibitions and held 11 solo exhibitions in Russia, Germany and the USA.
Selected Group Exhibitions
2025 — Prince of Light, Sosnovy Bor Museum of Contemporary Art
2025 — Swissartexpo digital exhibition, Zurich Central Station, Artboxy Gallery, Switzerland
2025 — Second Festival in Memory of Anna Pavlova, Arts Square Gallery, St. Petersburg
2023–2026 — 6 exhibitions at "Master-Class" Gallery, St. Petersburg
2021 — One's Own Reality (exhibition from private collections), Nord West Art Space Gallery
2015 — "Len-Soviet" Auction House, Angleterre Hotel, St. Petersburg (Auction No. 22, lot 139; Auction No. 23, lots 83, 84)
2015 — Golden Age of Russian Literature, Moscow · New York · Washington
2013 — VI "Russian Seasons" Antique Auction, St. Petersburg (lots 61, 62)
2010 — St. George's Day — Day of Heroes, "Warsaw Express" Rail Complex, St. Petersburg; State Museum of Folk Graphic Art, Moscow
2009 — A City Familiar to Tears…, K Gallery, St. Petersburg
2008 — The Image of St. George in Contemporary St. Petersburg Art, State Museum of the History of St. Petersburg, Rumyantsev Mansion
2008 — Portraits and Time, K Gallery, St. Petersburg
2006 — Autumn Salon, Centre of Book and Graphic Art, St. Petersburg
2005 — Pull of the Moon, "Art-alleya" Gallery, St. Petersburg
2004 — Touch Me, Broadway Gallery, New York, USA
2000–2003 — Spiritual Mission, State Museum of Ethnography, St. Petersburg (five issues of the journal "DU-MI")
1995 — Folk Festival at the University of Tampa, USA
1992 — Light for the Whole World, Manege, Moscow
1991 — "Art Hamburg 91," Hamburg Messe, Germany
1990 — Point of Support (exhibition of unofficial art), Leningrad Palace of Youth
Individual Exhibitions
2016 — Without Image or Likeness (exhibition of abstract works), Artlot24 Gallery, St. Petersburg
2010 — Landscape: Between East and West, "National Center" Gallery, St. Petersburg
2007 — Exhibition at SDM Bank, St. Petersburg
2006 — Apocrypha, "National Center" Gallery, St. Petersburg
2005 — Exhibition of abstract painting at the "Par.SPb" night club
1999 — Retrospection, "Palitra" Gallery, St. Petersburg
1999 — Music of Colour, Association of Commercial Banks, St. Petersburg
1998 — The Petrography Phenomenon, Mikhailovsky Manege, St. Petersburg
1997 — Another Reality, Dostoevsky Museum, St. Petersburg
1995 — Magic Abstractionism, "Palitra" Gallery, St. Petersburg
1995 — Abstract Surrealism, "At 145" Gallery, St. Petersburg, Florida, USA
Lectures & Projects
Alongside his exhibiting career, Vladimir Gruzdev has taken part in lecturing and a number of international projects.
1995 — Lectures at the University of South Florida (USF), USA, together with Peter Tush, curator of the Salvador Dalí Museum, held alongside a solo exhibition in the USA.
1997 — Seminar with leading Russian and American psychologists (Dmitry Spivak, Institute of the Human Brain RAS; Stanley Krippner, Saybrook Institute), held alongside the solo exhibition Another Reality, St. Petersburg.
2000 — Laureate of the EXPO 2000 international project competition, Hanover, Germany (kinetic object).
2001 — Contributor to the TV project Metaphysics of St. Petersburg, "Mir" TV Company.
2000–2003 — Co-organizer of the "Spiritual Mission" movement.
2003 — An original theory of colour and reflections on the role of art, published in the book Mirror of the World.
2003, 2004 — Papers and a multimedia project on colour perception presented at the VI and VII International UNESCO Congresses on Philosophy and Cultural Studies, Russian Academy of Sciences, St. Petersburg.
2007 — "Chance-Gallery" project at the "Reklama-Chance" Publishing House.
2008 — Paper "The Art of Painting as Psychotechnology" at the 7th International Conference on Transpersonal Psychology.
2010 — Lecture course Psychology and Painting at the "Arteria" art school.
A painting by V. Gruzdev was included in the two-volume publication Collectors: St. Petersburg — Petrograd — Leningrad — St. Petersburg, 1905–2015, KGallery, 2018. A chapter of A. S. Shalygin's monograph Famous and Distinguished Artists of St. Petersburg (2004; 2nd edition 2011) is devoted to the artist's work. Several dozen catalogues, albums, books and calendars have been published, along with more than twenty of the artist's own art-critical texts in various publications. Paintings by V. Gruzdev have been reproduced on the covers of the 21-volume series The World's Best Psychotechnologies (Prime-Evroznak / AST, 2006–2008). A painting was included in the catalogue of the Russian-American project A Summer in Art, 2026.
His works are held in the Museum of the History of St. Petersburg, and in galleries and private collections in Russia, Germany, the Netherlands, the USA, Finland and Japan.
