Alexey Lazarev

Soft to Touch, 2025 Sculpture, Plasma-cut steel sheet, plastic tie-wraps Dimensions: 25" x 32" x 6" The work revisits a memory of a China rose blooming on a windowsill, reimagined as a metal tapestry. It becomes a synthetic assemblage where objects tied to the material culture of the 1980s merge into a single form, evoking nostalgia and reflecting on attachment. Photo credit: @laurence_cheveux_courts This work was shown at Maureen X at the @fonderiedarling in May 2025

Work from the last semester. Glazed ceramics, foam, semi-precious chains, digital print on Kodi paper. Part of triptych.

'When Blue is Soft', 2023. The way we speak (and write) a language is influenced by pre-existing rules and notions that make us perceive the language in ways that may not represent our personal connections with words, sounds or sentences. We say one thing, but we may actually mean another. From the point of view of neurodiversity, there could be as many versions of a language as there are speakers of this language. In this project inspired by the readings and discussions from the seminar 'Beneath Language' led by Erin Manning, I'm creating a writing that stems from a single invented character, a compound of an outline of a drawing. Following a series of transformations, I came up with a composition (or an essay). Several copies of this composition were then lasercut from a sheet of paper with a gradient printed on it (transferred from a woodblock). For the installation, I reconfigured the paper lasercuts on the wall to create a more complex composition, incorporating the shadows in the mix. The copy that is suspended from the ceiling has handwritten text on the back side—it can be read in the mirror placed underneath. The text features excerpts from the writing produced during the seminar. Photos by Katya @konioukhova ❤️ #print #printart #printmedia #monotype #woodcut #woodcutprint #printmaking #art #artist #neurodiversity #drawing #monotype #artistmontreal #canadianart #canadianartist #language

Sundew (part 3) As I was using the pins, it clicked that there were (at least) two systems at play: the gestural yet structurally sound stems, and the droplets -- catching light, almost metallic, like brass in the sun. I began to explore these systems graphically: using the hand scanograms to echo the plant’s gestures, and the brass pins to map the positions of the droplets. Through this process, questions of displacement, disobedience, and discontent started to emerge. This led to a series of studies that I want to continue developing.

Sundew (part 2) I wanted to understand what it was that attracted me in the drosera plant. I started by printing black and white photographs I took at the Botanical Garden in Glasgow. I wanted to work with repeating motifs, so I used the printer settings to zoom into certain areas of the images, without digitally manipulating them. After a few scans, I started noticing how gestural the branches are -- and yet the structure holds very firmly. At some point, I had the impulse to scan my own hands, trying to mimic those gestures. This resulted in a series of hand scanograms, which I then began incorporating into a large collage I’ve been developing on the wall. Before realizing that the wall of my studio was concrete, I bought drawing pins to attach references and studies. I had a number of them lying around in small clusters, and at some point I noticed a visual connection between the circular droplets of the plant and the heads of the pins. I started pinning them instinctively, but it initially felt too decorative, almost purposeless. (To be continued in part 3)

Sundew (part 1) Sharing a set of studies I started last fall during my exchange at the Glasgow School of Art. A few days after arriving, I went to the Botanical Garden. They have a section with carnivorous plants, like pitcher plants, Venus flytraps, and drosera (sundew). The sundew caught my attention in particular. Looking at it, you don’t immediately understand how it could be carnivorous, where is it even happening? With pitcher plants or flytraps, the mechanism is visible: a container, a trap. The sundew, on the other hand, looks almost delicate, thin stems with small, glistening droplets. But the droplets are sticky. They attract insects. When something lands, it gets caught and the plant leaves slowly curl around it, enclosing the contact point. What’s interesting is that it doesn’t rely on this alone. It can also feed through its roots and photosynthesis. So this trapping mechanism exists alongside other ways of sustaining itself. (To be continued)

Alexey Lazarev Soft to Touch (Fireweed) & Soft to Touch (Liverleaf) 2026 Plasma- and torch-cut steel, protective sealant, plastic tie-wrap fringe • Acier découpé au plasma et au chalumeau, scellé avec enduit protecteur, frange en attaches autobloquantes en plastique 234x389 - 155x389 @blackmelt @espacetransmission 📸 @monsemuro

chez Alexey 💖 #montrealartist #portrait

Alexey Lazarev is a multidisciplinary artist, born in Saint Petersburg, Russia. He has lived and worked in Tiohtià:ke/Mooniyang/Montréal since 2012. Lazarev’s multidisciplinary practice examines queer, migrant, and neurodiverse experiences. Working with metal, paper, clay, and found materials, his work draws on strategies of masking, code-switching, deconstruction and reassembly, and non-linear narrative. • Alexey Lazarev est un artiste multidisciplinaire né à Saint-Pétersbourg, en Russie. Il vit et travaille à Tiohtià:ke/Mooniyang/Montréal depuis 2012. La pratique multidisciplinaire de Lazarev explore les expériences queer, migrantes et neurodiverses. Travaillant avec le métal, le papier, l'argile et des matériaux trouvés, son travail s'appuie sur des stratégies de masquage, de changement de code, de déconstruction et de réassemblage, ainsi que de narration non linéaire. @blackmelt @10villeneuveeast @@espacetransmission Portraits by @monsemuro

À travers une pratique artistique multidisciplinaire, Alexey explore des thèmes liés aux communautés queer, migrantes et neurodiverses. À partir de métal, de papier, d’argile et d’objets trouvés, il crée des dessins, des gravures, des sculptures et des assemblages qui traitent des changements d’identité après l’immigration, de la nostalgie pour des lieux qui n’existent plus, et du défi que représente l’expression d’expériences qui résistent à une articulation directe. Alexey travaille avec une tension dynamique en faisant en sorte que les objets et les textures s’imitent ou se contredisent les uns les autres, et en remettant en question la stabilité de la composition. Alexey Lazarev (@blackmelt ) prendra le contrôle du compte Instagram de artch demain, le mardi 19 août. Rendez-vous en story et au festival artch du 15 au 19 octobre prochain au centre-ville de Montréal ! ❍ Through a multidisciplinary art practice, Alexey explores themes connected to queer, migrant, and neurodiverse communities. Using metal, paper, clay, and found objects, he creates drawings, prints, sculptures and assemblages that talk about identity shifts after immigration, nostalgia for places that no longer exist, the challenge of expressing experiences that resist direct articulation. Alexey works with dynamic tension by making objects and textures mimic or contradict one another, and by challenging the compositional stability. Alexey Lazarev (@blackmelt ) will take over the artch Instagram account tomorrow, Tuesday August 19th. Meet Alexey on artch’s stories tomorrow - and discover his work at the artch festival this October 15-19 in downtown Montreal! ❍ Portrait : Vladim Vilain (@vladimvilain ) 𝘚𝘩𝘢𝘳𝘬 𝘛𝘦𝘦𝘵𝘩, 2024 Photo : Katya Kounioukhova (@konioukhova ) 𝘍𝘰𝘳𝘦𝘭𝘰𝘤𝘬, 2024 Photo : Katya Kounioukhova 𝘍𝘰𝘶𝘳𝘵𝘦𝘦𝘯 𝘤𝘪𝘳𝘤𝘭𝘦𝘴, 2024 Photo : Katya Kounioukhova

Exploring image transfer through personal memory and materiality. Photographs from my family archive and online sources are digitally printed on Kozuke paper and mounted on CNC-cut 'gates,' which are affixed directly to the gallery wall.

Work from the Winter 2025 semester (year 2 of the MFA) Material s: 3D-printed china rose flower (originally sculpted in clay and 3D scanned), clear vinyl tubing, dog leash (used as support), soil.