Konstantin Vais American art dealer Country: USA

Biography of Konstantin Weiss

Konstantin Weiss, an American art dealer and former Soviet mining engineer, currently resides in Long Island, New York, USA. He was born in 1961 into a professorial family in Moscow and grew up on Preobrazhenskaya Street, near the 'Sokolniki' metro station. Like all boys, Konstantin played hockey and football, and as he grew older, he pursued music and attended an art school. Later, he studied physics and mathematics at a specialized school affiliated with the Bauman Moscow State Technical University. Konstantin's father, a renowned scientist, dedicated his career to safety in mining. He authored numerous research papers and textbooks that generations of students studied from. Today, Konstantin's father is a corresponding member of the Russian Academy of Sciences and an academician at the Academy of Mining Sciences. His mother is also a scientist, balancing her studies in construction safety while raising Konstantin and his younger twin siblings in a small three-room apartment.

During the era of perestroika, Konstantin's mother opened an educational center and became one of the first private university owners in the country. Konstantin followed in his father's footsteps and enrolled at the Moscow Mining Institute, where his father taught. He graduated as a geophysicist. As a student, he met Svetlana, his future wife, who had grown up in an artistic family. Svetlana's uncle was a renowned artist, which sparked their mutual interest in both physics and art exhibitions. Little did the Weisses know how this combination of interests would shape their future. They were also avid hikers and campers, enjoying the romanticism of songs by the campfire.

After completing their studies, Konstantin and Svetlana moved far north, beyond the Arctic Circle, to work in Vorkuta, Russia. Konstantin, as a mining engineer, worked in an underground mine over 800 meters deep and descended into it almost every day. Initially, they thought they would spend three years in Vorkuta, but they ended up living there for eight years, during which their child grew up. In Vorkuta, Weiss gained valuable experience in leadership and organizing production processes, which would be useful in the future.

In 1993, Konstantin and Svetlana were invited to work in the United States. Although they initially did not plan to emigrate, their joint business was thriving, and the Weisses decided to stay, believing that living in the US would provide more freedom and convenience for themselves and their child. With their earnings, they bought a house in Long Island and opened an art gallery, which has been running for 14 years – a significant achievement in the gallery industry. The InterArt Gallery specializes in the genre of fantastic realism, which Konstantin and Svetlana refer to as the "art of imagination." The artists represented by Konstantin and Svetlana Weiss hail from various corners of the world. This fulfilled Konstantin's boldest dream, conceived during his student years in the Soviet Union.