Career

Grabovetskiy was recognized as the 2012 International Wood Carver of the year, and his piece Wall Decoration was awarded first place. His work utilizes the same approaches used for centuries by master woodcarvers, including techniques employed by Grinling Gibbons. In 2015 Alexander Grabovetskiy was Editors’ Choice to be Awarded with Woodworking Excellence in category: Turnings, Carvings & Objets d’Art by Popular Woodworking Magazine

Grabovetskiy was born on July 4, 1973 in the Russian town of Dimitrovgrad.

Due to his faith and his refusal to enlist in the Soviet Armed Forces, Grabovetskiy was imprisoned by the Soviet authorities.

He was freed after two years as part of an Amnesty International campaign for prisoners of faith incarcerated by the Union of the Soviet Socialist Republics. In prison he began a business making furniture and kitchen sets, and finding no work upon his release at the age of 21 years, he continued on to run his own woodworking enterprise. The woodworking and custom home building business that he established in Goshen, Indiana, Aalmark Limited Liability Company, employed a number of expert craftsmen who were also Christian refugees from the former Soviet Union.

He currently works in South Florida.