Mexican–Israeli modern impressionistic artist who used to work mainly with a palette knife and oils. He has developed his own unique technique and style which is unmistakable and cannot be confused with other artists. Afremov was mainly known as being a self-representing artist who used to promote and sell his work exclusively over the internet with very little exhibitions and involvement of dealers and galleries. Leonid Afremov used to paint mainly landscape, city scenes, seascapes, flowers and portraits. Most of his work is considered very colorful and politically neutral

Before the advancement of online sales and eBay, Afremov was a struggling artist. He was born in Vitebsk, Belarus, and lived there until 1990. Between 1990 and 2002 he lived in Israel, and from 2002 to 2010 in Boca Raton, Florida.

 In 2010 Leonid moved to the popular resort town of Playa Del Carmen , Mexico as a place for retirement and teaching inspiring young artists that later will become known as Afremov Studio . He soon was followed to Playa Del Carmen by his immediate family where they reside to this day .

Leonid died from cardiac arrest on August 19th 2019 . He is currently berried in the municipal cemetery in Playa del Carmen.

The Afremov family owns the trademark "Leonid Afremov" and all copyrights to the paintings. The family runs the website afremov.com and took charge of Afremov Studio. They also operate all the official social media of the artist.

Leonid Afremov was born on 12 July 1955 in Vitebsk, Belarus, then former USSR, to Jewish parents Bella Afremova and Arkadiy Afremov. His father was a shoe designer and shoemaker. His mother worked in a metal factory in Vitebsk. He was born in the same town as Marc Chagall, who later became a significant role model to Afremov.

Afremov was raised in a traditional Jewish home. His parents and grandparents spoke Yiddish at home. Despite government anti-semitism, the family practiced many Jewish traditions and risked imprisonment for practicing their religion and speaking their language. Their's birth certificates and government IDs stated their nationality as Jewish.

Afremov was a good student in school and was interested in history and art. He attended all the possible art classes offered in school and took private lessons from local artists. Leonid’s parents noticed his talent for painting at an early age and encouraged him to develop his talents. At the age of 14 Leonid was exposed to extreme cold which resulted in kidney damage. Later in life the kidney damage resulted in hypertension which played a big role in his heart failure and death in 2019.

In 1973 Leonid Afremov graduated with honor from high school in Vitebsk and was admitted to the Vitebsk Education Institute where he studied in the arts and graphics department. During his years in college, Afremov was introduced to the work of March Chagall, Picasso, Dali, Modigliani and the 19th century French Impressionism. His early artistic work was very influenced by Chagall and Modigliani. During his years in college, Afremov participated in various school exhibitions and even sold some paintings. In 1978 Afremov graduated from the Vitebsk Art School as one of their elite members. After that he took private lessons from local famous artist Barowski who was teaching art when Marc Chagall was still living in Vitebsk.

In 1975 Afremov met his wife to be, Inessa Kagan, who he married the following year. In 1977 his first son Dmitry was born. The young family lived in a 2 room apartment together with Inessa’s parents, grandmother and sister. In 1982 they bought their own home where they lived until 1990. After graduating from college, Afremov worked as a label designer in a local beer and liquor factory. Then he briefly worked in a local theater as a set designer.

In the early 1980’s he started doing free-lance work for communal farms and schools, designing and making various propaganda posters, themed rooms and walls for certain communist events and holidays. He was also doing template sculptures of Lenin from plaster. He had a very good reputation in that field and was invited back by many farms and schools. This type of work was available only during the summer and spring. In November 1984 his second son Boris was born.

During the cold Russian winter, Afremov stayed at home painting. He was not allowed to participate in government exhibitions because of his Jewish roots and was not allowed to be a member of the local art associations. His early work was sold privately via family and friends and was not seen by many people. A lot of his work in the 1980’s was just given away for free. He did not keep records of his work then and not much of it survived. The family currently has only one painting that was made before 1990.

In 1986 the Chernobyl disaster happened. Vitebsk was only a few hundred kilometers from Chernobyl, close enough for radiation to travel with the wind and rain. The ecological situation in the area worsened, local crops and water becoming contaminated with radioactive fallout. Small children were affected strongly, including Afremov's two year old son. At the same time Leonid Afremov was experiencing serious discrimination and insults for his Jewish heritage. The liberal politics of Mikhail Gorbachev allowed Jewish soviet citizens to migrate to Israel in the late 1980s. After being fed up with anti-semitism and problems caused by radiation, Leonid decided to move to Israel without hesitation as soon as the doors were opened.

On 14 May 1990 the Afremov family left by train from Minsk to Warsaw where they stayed in a hostel for 3 days. Then on 17 May 1990 they took a flight to Israel provided by the Israeli immigration authorities. The Afremov family was among the first to migrate from USSR in the Russian–Jewish immigration wave of the 1990s.

Leonid Afremov was preparing his move to USA very carefully. For several months he did not sell any paintings, everything he painted he sent to his sister in Brooklyn. When he arrived in the US in January 2002, he had more than one hundred paintings at his disposal. Him and his son were systematically going from one gallery to another in New York. They found galleries that liked and purchased paintings, however they only took what kind of judaic themes and musician portraits. Afremov found himself forced to paint only limited themes and subjects for living.

Leonid had good opportunities in New York but the cold climate affected his health. He was constantly struggling with arthritis and muscular pain caused by drastic temperature changes. Thus he moved to Fort Lauderdale in April 2002, The rest of the family joined him a few months later. In Florida, Afremov faced the same changeless like in New York, selling only certain themes and subjects that the galleries wanted and were able to sell.

In 2004, after graduating high school, Leonid’s son Boris was introduced to ebay by his friends. They tried to sell a couple of paintings by auction and immediately received positive approval. Paintings were sold for hundreds and sometimes thousands of dollars and everything sold without exception. For the first time Afremov was given the opportunity to paint what he really wanted. At this point the real artistic journey began. He began painting what he really wanted from his personal inspirations and finally was able to explore his artistic vision and abilities all the way.

The exposure on eBay gave him opportunities for commission orders and access to different galleries. However, because of negative experiences with galleries, Leonid preferred to sell directly to the collector. Thanks to the internet exposure, Afremov participated in various local TV shows around the USA. His art was declared very relaxing and calm by notable psychologists and psychiatrists who make use of his painting in various psychological and psychiatric therapy procedures. Afremov's paintings were published not only in art magazines but also in various medical and health magazines as examples of stress reducing paintings. In 2005 following a successful year, the Afremov family moved to Boca Raton. In the same year, they started taking their first family vacations in Cancun and Playa del Carmen. A Place that Leonid fall in love with from the first visit.
In 2007 with the help of his sons Leonid lunched his own personal site where he began selling giclees, prints and original painting, eventually moving all the business and attention to his personal site. Two years later Leonid underwent heart bypass procedures. The doctors recommended Leonid to stay away from managing a business, keep a calm lifestyle and ultimately retire. Since then his sons Boris and Dmitry have been handling his sales and business aspects like customer service and shipping.

On 17 May 1990 the Afremov family entered Israel in Ben Gurion International Airport. They had to give up their Soviet citizenship in favor of Israeli. To this day the family kept their Israeli citizenship. The Afremovs had some family in Israel who had lived there since the 1970s and 1980s. The family rented an apartment for them in Ramat-Gan and helped them to start their new life in Israel. A few weeks after moving to Israel, Leonid Afremov found a job in an advertisement agency making signs and posters. After working in an advertisement agency, he worked in a gallery shop where he learned to make frames, being introduced to the palette knife for the first time.

Because he was a recent Russian immigrant, the locals considered his work with little value. Galleries took paintings for 50 shekels (15USD) and were reselling them for 500 to 5000 shekels. When Leonid confronted galleries about the extremely low prices, he always received the same answer: "you are a Russian immigrant, you are a new piece of junk, you have no choice." The galleries refused to sell his work for percentage commissions just because he was a Russian immigrant. He was only given the option of a pittance for each painting which took a day to make. Afremov felt like he was exploited and discriminated by the galleries and the Israeli society just like he was by the Soviet Government. He attemped to sell at street fairs and exhibitions in local social clubs. However, it was difficult because of the social stigma of Russian immigrants. His wife was forced to take a low-paying job in a textile factory.

During the early 1990s, Leonid Afremov was mainly working with watercolors and acrylic. He was experimenting very little with usage of the palette knife. He was painting what people were buying, with very little artistic freedom. In 1993, the Afremov family bought an apartment in Ashdod because it was a city of mainly Russian immigrants. Leonid Afremov hoped to avoid constant insults and discrimination by moving to a place where mainly Russians lived. However, the city was primarily residential, without many opportunities, and Afremov had no choice but to keep dealing with the locals from the Tel Aviv area.

The exposure on eBay gave him opportunities for commission orders and access to different galleries. However, because of negative experiences with galleries, Leonid preferred to sell directly to the collector. Thanks to the internet exposure, Afremov participated in various local TV shows around the USA. His art was declared very relaxing and calm by notable psychologists and psychiatrists who make use of his painting in various psychological and psychiatric therapy procedures. Afremov's paintings were published not only in art magazines but also in various medical and health magazines as examples of stress reducing paintings. In 2005 following a successful year, the Afremov family moved to Boca Raton. In the same year, they started taking their first family vacations in Cancun and Playa del Carmen. A Place that Leonid fall in love with from the first visit.

In 2007 with the help of his sons Leonid lunched his own personal site where he began selling giclees, prints and original painting, eventually moving all the business and attention to his personal site. Two years later Leonid underwent heart bypass procedures. The doctors recommended Leonid to stay away from managing a business, keep a calm lifestyle and ultimately retire. Since then his sons Boris and Dmitry have been handling his sales and business aspects like customer service and shipping.

In 2005 Leonid Afremov vacationed in Playa del Carmen and Cancun for the first time. Since then he was visiting the Mexican Caribbean 2 to 3 times a year and completely fell in love with the area. Eventually in March 2010 Leonid decided to take on early retirement recommended by his doctors and moved to Playa del Carmen, a popular resort town near Cancun. His children were involved in his business to the point that they had to move to Mexico as well. His children still manage his virtual gallery and shipping office in Playa del Carmen. The Afremovs also have retail location in Cancun and Merida where they sell art during the busy tourist season in the winter. Leonid found Caribbean Mexico very relaxing and stress free to spend his time painting. In 2011 Leonid sponsored the construction of his own personal ranch near Puerto Morelos where he used to spend his free time . In 2018 Leonid has sponsored the construction of the Afremov Studio main facility in Playa Del Carmen. It is a large 3 story building where Afremov studio artists are currently working . This building is also housing the sales team, customer service and shipping facility . Since the start of the worldwide covid-19 pandemic in April 2020 many of the artists and office personal from Afremov studio work in the comfort of their own homes to this day. Leonid always had a very high demand for prints and reproductions because they were more affordable than his originals. He was very limited by himself in his production capabilities and required help. His family has helped him with making prints but it was not enough. Leonid has always belived that creating a copy of a painting is much better than regular flat prints . He spent many years developing a tequinue to copy his own work much easier . The prints and hand ebelished giclees could never capture the depth of the perspective and the texture of the strokes.

in 2011 Leonid started training professional artsits to paint in his original style. He hired many artsits and spent many years training them. They were making recreations and copies of his paintings in his original method 100% with oil on canvas . Leonid reffered to such paintings as original recreations. Eventually Leonid had a considerable group of artists working for him and he started refering to them as Afremov Studio. Initially they were making backgrounds and semi- finished paintings for Leonid to finish himself but after some time they learned how to make entire recreations of Leonid's work by themselves. Thanks to Afremov studio Leonid was able to provide affordable hand made copies of his work and make his art more accessable . People who could never afford an original , were able to aquire a recreation that was a real painting rather than flat print or poster.

in 2017 Leonid's health started declining , he had a blockage in a heart artery and had to undergo a second cataterisim procedure . 2 years later on August 19th, he experienced a cardiac arrest in his home in Playa Del Carmen in the morning . The same evening he was buried according to the jewish traditions in the municipal cemetery of Playa Del Carmen. he had a private ceremony handled by the Chabad house of Playa Del Carmen and Rabbi Haim Broad. Many fans when they come to Playa Del Carmen, visit the grave to put flowers.

After Leonid's passing , the family took charge of Afremov Studio . The studio keeps working making recreations and comissions . The family is taking all necessary steps for the studio to keep operation and keep the legacy of art of Leonid Afremov alive. the Family is very commited to Afremov Studio and its member artists.