Chattanooga Pulse

Acclaimed sculptor and Chattanooga resident Daud Akhriev’s “Spring” and “Summer” now grace the southern approach of the Market Street bridge, welcoming motorists as they drive northbound just past the Aquarium. Each of the sculptures depicts a woman in a different stage of life in each of the four seasons. Each one-ton sculpture stands fourteen feet tall.

At a ceremony held at the Market Street bridge, City Councilman Andre McGary, and RiverCity Corporation President Kim White introduced artist Daud Akhriev to a crowd of fellow artitsts, city representatives, art enthusiasts and the press.

Daud Akhriev was born in the former Soviet Union in 1959. He studied classical painting and drawing for 14 years, eight of them in St. Petersburg, Russia. In that city he received his master’s degree with honors from the Repin Institute under the tutelage of the late Piotr Fomin. In 1991 he immigrated to Chattanooga, Tennessee, and became a U.S. citizen.

Akhriev is trained in monumental public art and has four murals in Chattanooga: the Collegedale Seventh-Day Adventist Church, the Samaritan Center and St. Peter’s Episcopal Church.