Alexander Chekmenev (1969, Luhansk) is one of the main Ukrainian contemporary photographers. He started his career as a photographer in 1988 in a small photo studio in Luhansk. After returning from the army in 1993 was hired as a photographer in the Luhansk complex of art and industrial services. In 1997 moved to Kyiv, where he lives and works as a photojournalist now. His work has been published in New York Times Lens Blog, Time Magazine and Time Light Box, New Yorker Photo Booth, MSNBC, Quartz and others. A considerable part of his legacy is a unique archive of life in 90’s Ukraine with all the toughness and imperfections of the socio-political situation during those times. But Chekmenev is interested not only in “the times” in general—he puts a value on the characters of a period. The participant of UPHA—Ukrainian Photographic Alternative independent group. In 2014 he received the Grand Prix "Photographer of the Year of Ukraine 2013". His works were acquired by Mystetskyi Arsenal (Kyiv, Ukraine), MOKSOP (Kharkiv) Märkisches Museum Witten and Ludwig Museum (Germany). Author of Donbas (2011) and Passport (2017), Lilies (2020) and “Pharmakon / Ambulance” (2021) photobooks.
2021
We All Once Lived, The Naked Room, Kyiv
2020
Pamiršta žemė / Forgotten Land, Klaipeda CCC, Klaipeda, Lithuania (curator—Darius Vaičekauskas, co-curator—Sergiy Lebedynskyy)
2019
Photo on the Passport, Kyiv History Museum, Kyiv
Deleted, Ukrainian House, Kyiv
State Litarature Museum, Odesa, Ukraine (curators—Sergiy Lebedynskyy, Oleksandra Osadcha, Katerinda Radchenko)
Transit (together with Viktor and Sergiy Kochetov), Odesa Photo Days
2017
Passport, Folia Gallery, Paris, France (series Passport)
2016
Blue Sky Gallery, Portland, USA (series Donbass and Passport)
2015
Palffy Palace, Bratislava, Slovakia (series Donbas)
2014
Mad World, Clara Maria Sels gallery, Düsseldorf, Germany
2012
Joseph Huber Sura/Alexander Chekmenev DONBAS, Clara Maria Sels gallery, Düsseldorf, Germany (series Donbas)
2007
Black and White Photography, Yagallery, Kyiv
2001
Zamek gallery, Poznan, Poland (series Easter, Passport, Lilies, Blind, Portraits, Miners)
2000
Poprad, Slovakia (series Passport, Lilies)
2019
Between Fire and Fire: Ukrainian Art Now, Semperdepot, Vienna, Austria
Suwon Photo festival, Suwon, South Korea
Grenoble Photomonth, La Maison de l’Image, Grenoble, France
UPHA Made in Ukraine, AKT art space, Kyiv
2018
A Space of One's Own, PinchukArtCentre, Kyiv
Vom Auf- und Abstieg (together with Clemens Botho Goldbach, Olaf Metzel), Märkischen Museum in Witten, Witten, Germany
Permanent Revolution. Ukrainian art today, Ludwig Museum, Budapest, Hungary
Image Singulieres, Entrepôts Larosa, Set, France
2017
Research Platform: Anonymous Society, PinchukArtCentre, Kyiv
2016
Suwon Photo festival, Suwon, South Korea
2014
Euromaidan: The True Story, 8BIT Gallery, Kyiv
Shift: Ukraine in Crisis, Third Floor Gallery, Cardiff, Great Britain
LEGACY: Russia, Ukraine, Georgia, & The Caucasus, Newcastle upon Tyne, Great Britain
I’m Drop in the Ocean—Art of the Ukrainian Revolution, Vienna Künstlerhaus, Vienna, Austria
2013
The look behind | Der Blick dahinter, Märkischen Museum in Witten, Witten, Germany
2012
First Kyiv Biennial of Contemporary Art “Arsenale-2012”, Mystetskyi Arsenal, Kyiv
2010
3rd Festival of Documentary Photographs, Poznan, Warsaw, Poland
Якщо, Если, If, Contemporary art museum PERMM, Perm, Russia
2008
4×4. Ukrainian Contemporary Photography, House of Photography, Vilnius, Lithuania
2000
European competition of documentary photography, Vevey, Switzerland
1994
1 lace in Ukrpressphoto contest, New Names category, Kyiv