Sergei Saakian (1959) is a USSR-born NYC-based visual artist, working primarily in painting and drawing.
Sergei grew up in Makhachkala, the capital of Soviet Dagestan, where his Armenian grandparents had moved to in the 1930s from the disputed area of Nagorny Karabach. As a teenager, Sergei wasn’t particularly invested into arts, until at the age of 16 an insightful visit to an artist’s studio forever changed his perspective about his future professional pursuit and passion.
In 1975 he entered Art College in Makhachkala, where he studied interior design. Upon honorary graduation, Sergei worked at the Art Union for Dagestan as an interior designer and artist with an aspiration to get further art education in Moscow. In 1982 Sergei enrolled in the Graphics department of the leading USSR art school of the time - The Surikov Art Institute in Moscow. He later switched to the Painting department where he studied under supervision of renowned artist Tair Salakhov and graduated with honors in 1989. While at the Art Institute, he participated in a number of international exhibitions and art competitions at different venues in Moscow and internationally, including two group shows in the Moscow Manege and an international artist competition in Tokyo, where he won the 3d prize.
For the next few years, before the collapse of the Soviet Union, Sergei lived in Moscow and worked as a freelance artist. As the political situation in the country was rapidly changing many artists of the time were looking for ways to emigrate in search of more developed art markets and greater professional opportunities that Moscow of the early 1990s couldn’t offer to young artists. In 1990, as the borders fully opened and traveling became easier, Sergei left for NYC, and after a year he decided to stay there for good. Being an émigré artist new to the local art scene and looking for a professional occupation, for the first few years Sergei worked as a no-name artist for a commercial gallery, where, according to the contract, he couldn’t sign his works with his own name. Over the three years with the gallery Serge created a large amount of works that were selling fast and were in high demand by private collectors and art lovers. In the mid-1990s, in order to support his family, he started his interior contracting business but never stopped working as an artist - he was constantly creating new works - drawings, paintings, sketches.
In 2017 Sergei decided to focus on his artistic practice solely and has been working on a few new series of paintings and developing ideas for new projects. He is currently working on an artist book, where his works of different years will be presented.