Zhenya Gershman


Zhenya Gershman is a Russian-born U.S. painter and portraitist. She is known for her "dramatic monumental portraits of iconic public and private figures" and interest in art history.

Early life

Her grandfather Mikhail Matusovsky was an award-winning Russian poet and lyricist who authored the lyrics to the song "Moscow Nights". Gershman held her first solo painting exhibition at the age of 14 in Saint Petersburg. She received her BFA from Otis Art Institute with honors and MFA from Art Center College of Design. Gershman's early mentor was and she later studied under the guidance of Lita Albuquerque.

Artist

Gershman's portraits are featured in public and private collections including Douglas Simon, Richard Weisman and the J. Paul Getty Research Institute. Gershman's portrait of Sting is part of the permanent collection of the Arte Al Limite Museum, due to open in 2017 in Santiago, Chile. The GRAMMY MusiCares selected Gershman to create portraits of Bruce Springsteen and Bob Dylan. A documentary film, The Model's Artist, highlights Gershman's innovative approach to working with artists' models. In 2000, Gershman was a recipient of ALEX Award in Visual Arts from The National Alliance for Excellence, Honored Scholars and Artists Program, presented by Peter Frank, who is quoted as saying that

Other

In addition to her artistic career, Gershman is an independent scholar and a museum educator. Gershman's identification of a figure in Rembrandt's painting Danaë as a possible self-portrait was discussed in Le Monde.