Born on 24 January in 1969 in Leningrad (now St. Petersburg), Sergey Cherep began expressing himself creatively when he was very young. Paralyzed and unable to speak for many years as a result of contracting meningitis when he was only three years old, Cherep found that painting comforted him. When he was eight years old, he was enrolled in a school for young artists and he continued his studies at the Serevo Art Institute, a prestigious art college. It was here that Cherep received his formal art training in European art history, photography, printing processes, sculpture, restoration methods, and varied painting styles.

Feeling constrained by the accepted art styles of the USSR – “We did very traditional things like still life, painting bowls and squares. The teachers told us what to paint - there was no freedom,” he explains, Cherep immigrated to the United States in 1992. After years employed as a janitor in Atlanta, Georgia, he met his wife in 1995, and with her business sense and his artistic talents, they turned his hobby into a profitable career. Since then, Cherep has become a widely admired and desired artist; his artwork can be found in private, public, and corporate collections around the world.

Inspired a great deal by French Impressionism and Post-Impressionism, Cherep emphasizes simplicity in colors, often focusing on the primary colors which relay a vibrant and energetic ambiance. “The bold, unrealistic colors and expressive brushstrokes of my predecessors are my tool,” he explains. I try to bring a three-dimensional feeling out from the paintings by using color, perspective, and a thick texture.”