Artist Andrei Kushnir was born in a refugee displacement camp in Regensburg, Germany in 1947, and grew up in Scott, Mississippi and Chicago, Illinois. He was a cartoonist for the student Chicago Illini, University of Illinois at Chicago Circle. He began painting in oils in 1980, and was soon painting en plein air. While essentially self-taught, he studied with artists Michael Francis and Michele Martin Taylor. The artist developed a naturalistic, realist style, painting in every type of weather, focusing on locations in Maryland, Virginia, Florida, most Western U.S. states, and in New Zealand, Italy, France, Spain and Holland. His works were selected in juried shows throughout the United States, often by judges who were curators at major art museums.

The artist's works are in the permanent collections of the U.S. Coast Guard; District of Columbia's Commission of Arts & Humanities; University of Maryland Global Campus; South Florida State College Museum of Florida's Art and Culture; Virginia Museum of History and Culture; Museum of the Shenandoah Valley; Shenandoah University, Woodrow Wilson Presidential Library and Museum, The University Club, Washington, DC, and the personal collections of President George W. Bush (USA) and Ukrainian President Victor Yushchenko. Kushnir's works have also been exhibited by the U.S. Department of State's Art in Embassies program in Algeria, Moldova and Latvia. His paintings are on loan to the Embassy of Ukraine, Washington, D.

C. Articles about Kushnir and his work have appeared in numerous national and regional publications, and his biography is included in the internet Wikipedia. Kushnir is the author of twelve publications of his work, including American Light 2001, Painted History, Potomac River School, Oh, Shenandoah, Paintings of the Historic Valley and River by Andrei Kushnir, The Shenandoah Valley's Interstates and An Art Gallery in the East Village.