Alexander Zakharov is a master of the miniature form and has gained incredible, yet understandable success, since graduating from the Moscow Academy of Art in 1985. His works are in seven public collections, including the Philadelphia Museum of Art, the Portland Museum of Art and the Pushkin State Museum of Fine Arts, and he is a favourite of the Hollywood stars. His artworks are collected by, among others, Whoopi Goldberg, Nicholas Cage and Gillian Anderson and the former music legend David Bowie.

The Russian born artist paints exquisite photorealist ‘childhood dreams’ on an impressively small scale as seen with ‘Hunting for Butterflies’ where fairies take aim at the fluttering insects.

‘I believe that in every one of us lives a child, and my paintings are about what that child loves and accepts. In my works, I talk to him in the language he and I can understand. Even the size of my works - it's memories of childhood, where all the important things in life can fit in a pocket or under a pillow, so that you don’t have to part with them even for a minute.

Every time, starting a little story in paint, I let go of everything that's "grown up", that bothers and nags me in real life. I travel to this reality, where good defeats bad, where life has a meaning, and cynicism doesn't have the last word; where we are never lonely and nobody can hurt us. These little characters open me to new beginnings, and however bad it is, it's still all good, even though often sad.’