 Alexander Reichstein was born in 1957, in Moscow, Russia. 1976-1982 he studied printed media design and illustration, at the Moscow Polygraphical institute, specializing mostly in children's book illustration. 1982-1985 he worked as art director in the "Iskusstvo" ("Art") publishing house in Moscow. Since 1982, he has worked for various Moscow publishers, designing and illustrating books for adults and children. Alexander has lived and worked in Helsinki, Finland, since 1990, making art for children, and with children: illustrating children books for Swiss, Austrian, German, American and Finnish publishers, painting pictures and making sculptures for children, leading workshops, arranging happenings and art courses, building up exhibitions and installations (in a wide range of institutions - from day care centers to libraries and art museums). 1992-1994 and 2006-2008 he was teaching at the University for Art and Design Helsinki. Alexander Reichstein has taken part in several seminars and conferences for art education, presenting papers about his own art projects. The projects created by Alexander, are exhibitions for children and their parents, where visitors can be active both mentally and physically, and experience unusual artistic impressions with all their senses. Many of Alexander's projects are based on children's book illustrations. His art work has been exhibited in Finland, Sweden, Germany, Russia, Iceland, Italy, France, Japan, Spain and Portugal. It is to be seen in several collections in Finland, Russia, Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Sweden, Norway, Israel, U.S.A. A book illustrated by Alexander (Alexis Kouros. "Gondwanan lapset". Helsinki 1997), was granted the highest Finnish award for children and youth books, the Finlandia Junior in 1997. For his exhibition project "The feather island", Alexander received the Topelius Medal in 1999. In 2008, Alexander was granted the Finnish State Award in children's culture. In 2016, Milena Parland (writer) and Alexander Reichstein (illustrator) were granted with the award of the Swedish Literature Society in Finland for the book "När månen skrattade". A.R. is member of Association of Finnish Sculptors, Finnish Illustrators Association, and Grafia.
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