Zelya, Alexey Olegovich

Born in an intelligent Moscow family. His father was an officer, a descendant of a noble family, his mother had a pedagogical education. From early childhood, Alexei Zelya was fascinated by nature, which subsequently reflected in his work. After leaving school and serving in the Soviet Army, Alexei Zelya entered the Faculty of Biology of Moscow State University . There he met a junior student, his future wife Olga. An early marriage and the birth of a daughter led to the fact that he was forced to quit training.

In 1971, Alexei Zelya began working at the Moscow Electric Lamp Plant . Here, working in the production of quartz lamps, he first gets acquainted with this amazing material and receives the profession of glassblower. In his free time between shifts, Alexei Zelya experimented with glass, smelting figures of various animals from it. Later, he tries himself in other directions - glass candlesticks, baskets, ships. Early works, such as Rhinoceros, Lama, Eared Hedgehogs (1975), Ampir candlesticks (1979), and the Galleon ship (1982), belong to this period.

In 1982, the leadership of MELZ pays attention to the unique talent of the artist and allocates a separate workshop for his work. Since that time, Alexei Zelya has been fulfilling government orders for special “crystal” gifts for senior politicians, including former French President Francois Mitterrand, British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, and Swedish Prime Minister Olof Palme. In addition, Alexei Zelya makes gifts for members of the Politburo. In his free time, he was allowed to work for himself. During this period, such works as “Toadstools” (1982), “Chrysanthemums” (1982), “Winter Morning. Ermine ”(1983),“ Fox and Grapes ”(1985),“ Touch ”(1987).

In 1988, during the perestroika period, Alexey Zelya entered into a cooperative, equips his own workshop and begins to develop exhibition activities. By this time, Alexey had taken part in eleven exhibitions (1980-1986), mainly as part of groups of amateur artists - students of the Correspondence People's University of Arts (A. Zelya graduated from ZNUI in 1982).

In his own workshop, Alexei Zelya invents new colors of quartz glass and methods for processing it. From previously available white, yellow and transparent, pink, blue, green, red, blue, brown appear in his palette. He immediately embodies his new inventions in his works: Bonsai (1988), Karakum in the Spring (1989), Aquarium (1989), Rush (1990), Wall Plate (1990), Coral Reef "(1991)," Long-Tailed Tits "(1992)," Orchids "(1995).

In 1988, the first solo exhibition of Alexei Zel takes place at VDNH , and the artist receives a gold medal of the complex. Since then, more than 150 exhibitions have been held in cities of the Soviet Union, then Russia and Ukraine (including the State Hermitage, the Tretyakov Gallery, the Manege, the Government House, the Livadia Palace), which were visited by hundreds of thousands of spectators.

In 1996, Alexey Zelya built a house in the suburbs, where he equipped a workshop on the ground floor. During his career, the artist created more than 200 compositions, which made it possible to compile a collection of copyright works, examples of which can be seen on the artist’s personal website ^[1] . Having given the best years to his beloved business, with his retirement, Alexey Zelya began to devote more time to himself and his family. Since childhood, he was attracted to travel to distant lands, and in the last years of his life he visited with his wife in many parts of America, Asia and Africa.

Alexei Zelya died on March 28, 2017 in Moscow and was buried in Cherkizovsky cemetery.

Wife - Zelya Olga Petrovna, daughter - Zelya Anna Alekseevna.

In 1993 he was awarded the title People's Artist of Russia ( List of People's Artists of the Russian Federation )

Diploma of the Fifth Artiada of the Peoples of Russia (1995-1999), in which Alexey Zelya was assigned to the Higher League of the Guild of Professionals in the field of arts and crafts for outstanding achievements in arts and crafts, the creation of an original technique for processing glass and a series of artistic compositions and voluminous paintings ^[2] .

• Personal site of Alexey Zel.