V.Gruzdev. Biography:

Vladimir Gruzdev was born in 1951 in St.Petersburg (Leningrad). Upon graduation from Leningrad Aircraft Instrumentation College in 1974 he obtained a degree in electronic engineering. In following years scientific work has been his main occupation while painting was more of a hobby. Participation in underground art exhibitions held at people's apartments was the only outlet for independent artists back in those days as socialist realism was dominant and the only permitted form of art in USSR. In 1989 along with Perestroyka Vladimir felt strength to quit the job to become a full-time artist.

V.Gruzdev gave lectures in the University of South Florida (USF) with Peter Tush, the curator of Salvador Dali Museum (1995). He conducted the workshop with leading American transpersonal psychologists from Saybrook Institute, USA (Stanley Krippner and others) (1997). Vladimir Gruzdev is a laureate of competition of projects for EXPO-2000 exhibition in Hannover, Germany (2000). Vladimir contributed to popular TV series 'Metaphysics of St.Petersburg' (2001). In 2003 he wrote a book on problems of visual perception presenting original theory of color. A part of this book dedicated to color transcription of I-Ching, Chinese 'Book of changes' was presented to scientific and artistic community at Sixth and Seventh International Congresses in Philosophy and Culture UNESCO (2003, 2004 St.Petersburg, Russia). In 2007 Gruzdev founded newspaper gallery 'Chance-Gallery' (http://www.chance.ru/art). At Seventh International Conference of Transpersonal Psychology (2008) Vladimir conducted a workshop entitled 'The Art of Painting as Psychotecnology'. He gave the course of lectures 'Psycology and Painting' in the Art-school 'Artery' (2010).

Vladimir's artworks can be found in The State Museum of History of St.Petersburg, in galleries and private collections around the world. His paintings illustrate 22 books of 'The Best Psychotecnologies of the World' series published by 'Prime Evroznak' and 'AST' (2006 - 2008). A.S.Shaligin dedicated a chapter to Vladimir Gruzdev in his book 'The Famous artists of St.Petersburg' (2004).