Alexandra Cazes (born in Novosibirsk, Russia) is a French-Russian painter based in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. She grew up in an artistic family, where art was part of her early life. She initially studied Finance and Credit and later built a successful career in banking, where she held a management position in corporate risk. In 2021, after moving to Singapore, she made a conscious decision to leave her banking career and fully pursue her artistic practice, beginning her studies in painting and contemporary art. In 2025, she completed a Licence in Fine Arts (Arts Plastiques) at Université Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne, France. Her practice is shaped by living between Russia, France, Singapore and Malaysia. She works with oil, chalk, pigment and other materials, using the surface as a space to explore memory, inner experience, tension and transformation. Having lived in Russia, France, Singapore and now Malaysia, I have experienced different places, cultures and ways of life. These experiences have become part of my inner world. I am interested in how places, emotions and cultures stay with us, even after we leave them behind. I see the surface as a place where emotions, pressure and personal experiences can remain. Through oil, chalk, pigment and other materials, I build, cover, break and erase the surface, allowing hidden forms and marks to appear and disappear. Chalk has a special place in my practice. My father is an artist, and chalk is a material he uses in his own work. For me, it creates a connection between our artistic practices and my personal history. I am also drawn to its changing and unpredictable nature. The way chalk is applied can change its character — it can feel light and almost weightless, or dense and solid like stone. Its color can change over time, parts of the surface can crumble, and I can never fully predict the final result. I find this balance between control and chance important to my process. My works explore tension, resistance, vulnerability, memory, loss and trans- formation. I am interested in what remains within us — as a trace, a memory or a feeling — and how our experiences continue to shape us over time. Between Cities And Times is about my memory of the city that was once an important part of my life. Moscow is shown not as a specific place, but as a personal memory — a city that still exists inside me, while the real city has changed greatly over time. The work explores feelings of loss, distance, and the changing connection to a place that is no longer seen in the same way as before.