Alexander Tokarev was born in Odessa into a family of artists in 1946. He lives and works in Moscow.

In 1966 he graduated from the Odessa College of Arts, and later from the USSR Institute of Cinematography in Moscow (VGIK), with degrees in the arts and directing.

He has participated in USSR, CIS, and foreign exhibitions since 1966.

Alexander Tokarev has been a member of the Artists' Union since 1974. From 1974 through 1980 he worked as a script writer, movie director and cinema artist.

From 1986 through 1992 he was the Chief Artist of the Moscow Experimental Musical Theater.

In 1995-1999 he worked with Mstislav Rostropovich on all of his Russian projects.

In 1995-1996 he was the Chief Artist of the Razgulyay Magazine.

Tokarev is a founder of a “cultural brand”, the famous MAN-ORCHESTRA series. In 1990 the association “L'homme et culture” (Paris) conducted an exhibition under the same name. The first major exhibition of these works in Russia, MAN-ORCHESTRA: THEME AND VARIATIONS, which was organized by the USSR Artists' Union together with the USSR Composers' Union, was conducted during the First Moscow International Jazz Festival at the Moscow Central House of Artists in 1991.

In 1994 the Grabar State Institute for Art Studies of the Russian Ministry of Culture arranged a solo exhibition of Tokarev's works dedicated to the 50 th birthday of the Institute. Some of the paintings displayed at the exhibitions have become identified with the Institute and still grace its main hall.

During the recent decade the artist has created a number of multi-part works (polyptychs – a massive and complex form of painting, where canvases are created in series, usually comprising 5-7 large pieces ). They are amazing in their scale, novel form and unusual content. Each polyptych is a multilevel text, sardonic and philosophical.

After a 2004 exhibition where the artist showed some of his polyptychs, the mass media have described him as “the most intellectual and ironic artist of our time.”

The artist's credo is that: painting is philosophy.