Sergey Alibekov

Sergey Arifovich Alibekov was born on 16 May 1956 in the settlement of Kosonsoy (Kasansay) in the Namangan region; much of his life and work has been tied to Fergana. He graduated in sculpture from the Kyrgyz State Art School in 1976 and studied at the Tashkent Theatre and Art Institute in 1977–1979. He has exhibited since 1979 and works in easel painting and drawing, sculpture, ceramics and decorative art.

He began as a ceramicist and from the early 1980s turned increasingly to painting. He has been a member of the Union of Artists of the USSR since 1983 and of the Union of Cinematographers since 1989.

From 1984 he worked with the Uzbekfilm studio: in 1984–1994, in its animation association, as production designer and sometimes as screenwriter and director. He became widely known through the short film “There Will Come Soft Rain” (1984), based on Ray Bradbury’s story and directed by Nazim Tulyakhodzhaev, for which Alibekov was production designer; it won prizes at festivals in Leipzig (1984) and Bilbao (1985).

He went on to design the animated films “The Golden Leaf” (1985) and “The Chrysanthemum Garden” (1986) and, in 1987, the feature film “Veld”. As a director he made the animated films “Pause” (1988), “The Thread” (1990) and “By the Puddle” (1990), which won prizes at international festivals, and in 2003 the animated film “Echogram”, again as director and designer.

Since 2003 he has lived in Russia, where he took part in feature films — “The Turkish Gambit” (2005), “Death of the Empire” (2005), “Mongol” (2007), “1612” (2007) and “The Book of Masters” (2009) — preparing sketches and concepts for computer graphics.

His works are held by the Tretyakov Gallery in Moscow, the Kutaisi gallery, museums in Uzbekistan and private collections in Uzbekistan, Russia and abroad. He is a repeated prize-winner of international animation festivals and painting biennials.