Alex Shagin is a coin designer.
Artistic overview
Shagin, born near Leningrad on 1947, graduated from the Vera Mukhina School of Arts and Design in Leningrad in 1972, and then designed commemorative coins and medallions for the Leningrad Mint. Peter the Great, Michelangelo, Apollo–Soyuz and the Moscow Olympics are but a few of his designs. He emigrated to the United States, and since 1980, has worked as a freelance medallic artist in Southern California.
Awards
Moscow Medallic Art Award in 1972; First prize in the American Medallic Sculptors Association in 1983; American Numismatic Association Excellence Award in 1990; J. Sanford Saltus Award from the American Numismatic Society in 1995.
He has works in museums and private collections around the world, including the Hermitage Museum, the Smithsonian Institution, Yad Vashem Museum, the British Museum and the Swedish Royal Medallic Collection. In 2002, as First Vice President of the American Medallic Sculpture Association (A.M.S.A.) he participated in the Federation Internationale de le Medaille (F.I.D.E.M.) congress by designing a special presentation medal for the American Delegation—The Medal of Liberty presented to twelve individuals by Ronald Reagan in 1986.
Organizations and Individuals that have commissioned works from Alex Shagin
National Air and Space Museum
The Hermitage Museum
The British Museum Permanent Numismatic Collection
The Swedish royal family
The Gorbachev Foundation
Armand Hammer Museum
The Jewish-American Hall of Fame
Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger
Ronald Reagan Presidential Library
Each project Alex Shagin designs is a personal tribute to the freedom and democracy he found since immigrating to America from Russia in the 1980s. His work on the Moscow Olympics (1980) and Los Angeles Olympics (1984) led to international recognition culminating in the American Numismatic Society's Saltus Award in 1995. He has created works for the US Mint, Singapore Mint, Israel Government Mint, American Numismatic Association, Leningrad Mint, The White House (Ronald Reagan) to name a few.
Shagin medallic history
Shagin's principal work has been uniface and two-sided cast bronze medals. He has also produced freestanding medallic art. The classical tradition is the key to his art.