Sculpture
Bio
Bio
Born in a small town in Moldova, formerly part of the USSR, Litvinov was interested in constructing things with his hands from an early age. One of his few and most beloved toys was a small set of early version of leggos. Later he started using whatever materials were at hand: from wood to metal to clay – anything that could be changed through the use of his hands and tools – was fair game.
As a consequence of the disintegration of the Soviet Union in the early 1990′s combined with a local version of ethnic cleansing, Litvinov and his family were forced to move out of the country. They settled in Southern California. More recently Litvinov moved to Sacramento, California. Sculpture has been his passion for the last couple decades. He had no formal education in arts until 2008 when he started studying abstract sculpture under Donald Hartman at Santa Monica College.
Litvinov’s early works involved reassembling broken circuit boards, tube tv sets, video cassette players, answering machines and other electronic equipment and appliances. Litvinov still enjoys dismantling old VCRs and answering machines on occasion. Since he also had to pay rent while refining his sculpting technique, he studied the human body and became a physical therapist. He believes there is something very intimate in the human touch which cannot be replaced by any other sensory organ. As a physical therapist, he touches people every day. Every day he sculpts, his trained hand transfers a little bit of human shape to stone. Ultimately, the sculpted shapes may be reminiscent of a curve or a bump on your very well studied partner’s body. Another frequently encountered concept in Litvinov’s sculpture is metamorphosis of one object into another. He is interested in the transition and interface between different media, feelings, emotions, and their influence on one another. Sculpture is Litvinov’s way of active meditation. He surrenders himself completely to the creative process.