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Sasha Key is a Russian-American LGBTQ+ and HIV+ multidisciplinary artist whose work explores the emotional intersections of fragility, power, and transformation. After immigrating to the United States in 2016, Sasha began a profound journey of self-discovery — coming out, starting therapy, and embracing his diagnosis as part of a larger personal and creative awakening.
Sasha is best known for his surreal watercolor series featuring blooming crabs with
flowers growing from their eyes where they can insert different human organs to start feeling like humans — a striking symbol of resilience and vulnerability. These creatures inhabit a world of emotional depth, celebration, and metamorphosis, reflecting Sasha’s ongoing exploration of identity, queerness, and the body as a site of both memory and magic.
Working across watercolor, surrealism, and storytelling, Sasha’s practice also includes writing fairy tales and music. His creations aim to comfort, challenge, and connect — with himself and his audience.
He currently lives and works in New Jersey, offering original paintings, giclée prints, and performance-based art through his independent practice.
My art is rooted in the tension between vulnerability and strength. As a queer, HIV+ immigrant from Russia, I use surrealism to process and transform personal pain into something tender, vivid, and alive. Watercolor is my primary medium because of its fluidity — just like emotion, it resists control, and that honesty shows in every brushstroke.
In my most well-known series, crabs grow flowers from their eyes. During their “blooming season,” they can insert human organs into the flowers to experience emotions—joy, sorrow, longing. These creatures are fragile yet armored, emotional yet otherworldly. Through them, I explore queerness, embodiment, and the strange beauty of survival.
Whether I’m painting, writing fairy tales, or singing, my work is an invitation: to feel more deeply, to look closer, to celebrate what makes us different. It’s not just about being seen—it’s about creating a world where sensitivity is power, and where softness is something sacred.
Sasha Keys
(Artistic name of Alexander Kachalin)
📍 Based in New Jersey, USA
📧 evocatore@gmail.com
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Education & Training
• Masterclasses with Elena Bazanova (Online)
• Color Theory & Practice Course (Completed)
• Portrait and Human Anatomy Study (including skeletal and muscular structure)
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Exhibitions
2024
• Crabs and Flowers Series — Art Walk Exhibition, St. Petersburg, FL (Group Show)
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Teaching
• Independent Art Instruction — Private students in drawing, watercolor, and body studies
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Collections
• Private collections in the USA, Europe, Russia, Brazil, and several Asian countries
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Professional Affiliations
• Visual AIDS Artist+ Registry