Alexander Melamid

Alexander Melamid is perhaps best known as being one half of the duo Komar & Melamid, who rose to prominence in the late 1960s in Soviet Russia for their humorous and politically charged works. Since 2004, Melamid has been working alone. His individual projects are also known for their provocative and playful use of irony; Melamid said in a 2011 interview: “I discovered five years ago that the truth is funny. Not everything that’s funny is true, for sure. But whatever is not funny is not true.” Among his famous works are portraits of hip hop celebrities rendered in an Old Master style, and Art Healing Ministry (2011-ongoing), a practicing clinic in New York’s Soho that uses the power of art to heal psychological and physical ailments.