Alexander Belschenko (1951- ) was born to Ukrainian parents in Corby, Northamptonshire. He was educated at Winchester School of Art, Slade School of Art, Norwich School of Art and Swansea School of Art, where he studied architectural stained glass. He still lives and works in Swansea.
In August 2022 award-winning Beleschenko added three new stained glass windows into the Members' Room in Chartered Accountants' Hall, featuring an intricate arrangement of predominantly grey, blue, orange, purple, green and yellow geometric shapes and patterns.
Beleschenko has written an 'Artist's view' of his creative process for the Architects' Journal (Donald Insall refreshes Grade II*-listed Accountants Hall), describing the artwork as "a combination of realism and abstraction", inspired by details in the decoration seen elsewhere in the building.
The patterned flooring of the Hall's Moorgate entrance was the inspiration for the work's background grid and sweeping forms of the the existing stained glass in the Member's Room inspired the painted forms of Beleschenko's work.
The artist revealed during an Open House viewing that the final stage of construction, the bonding of the treated glass to backing sheets, caused some difficulties . It was a hot summer and the silicone glue used to bond the layers of glass was drying in minutes rather than hours so work was done in the early morning or late evening.
Visitors to Open House were also surprised to hear the artist explain that the three layers of his installation were bonded with the same glue developed for the international space station. He joked that if that starts falling apart then we need to start worrying…
You can read more about the process of the design and construction of the glass in the book ICAEW Members Room Glass Artwork 2022 which the Library has a loan copy of.
