Vasily Kafanov

Vasily Kafanov
Photo of Artist Vasily Kafanov
Born	Vasily Alexeyevich Kafanov 16 July 1952 (1952-07-16) (age 65) Moscow, Russia
Residence	New York City, United States
Nationality	American
Known for	Painting Illustration
Spouse(s)	Eteri Lobzhanidze (m. 1980)
Website	Kafanov.com

Vasily Alexeyevich Kafanov (Russian: Василий Алексеевич Кафанов; born 16 July 1952) is a Russian-born painter and illustrator. His works have been collected in many countries. His painting style mainly involves the depth of life in different forms. He also uses ceramics, printmaking and sculpture for making his artworks.

Kafanov was born in Moscow, Russia. His parents were Ludmila and Alexei Kafanov but as they got divorced, he was raised by his grandmother. After finishing school, he was in the Soviet Far East, Kuril Islands, serving in the ranks of the Soviet Armed Forces from 1970 to 1972. He graduated from the Moscow Institute of Art and started his life as a graphic artist and an illustrator. Later on, he graduated from Advanced School of Cinematography and created four short cartoons at the Soyuzmultfilm studio. He married Eteri Lobzhanidze in 1980. Their only child, Lucy Kafanov (born 1982), is a journalist who is now a foreign correspondent for NBC News.

Kafanov used to paint traditional oils on canvas and sometimes on wood panels. Later on, his drawing began to feature a large fish, which popped up in a variety of very strange settings, carrying small chapels and towers on its back. Nowadays, he uses rapidograph and black Japanese ink on acrylic for his paintings. Bright primary colors with yellow backgrounds, as well as lots of red and green are also used in his paintings. He also worked on different fields of arts with ceramics, welding, sculpture and artifacts concerning alchemy.

In the late 1980s, when spy thriller The Russia House was made in Russia, its film crew used Kafanov's studio to hold a cast party. Among the guests was the film director and painter Franco Zeffirelli who praised his painting style and played a key role in influencing Kafanov. Throughout his career, Kafanov has also been inspired by the paintings of prominent artists, such as Pablo Picasso, Marc Chagall, Mikhail Shemyakin and Giorgio Morandi. In 1990, Kafanov emigrated to America and started living in New York. His first exhibition in the United States was in the summer of 1990 in San Francisco.