Grigoriyev Vasily V. was born in the town of Kirzhach, the Vladimir region. Since childhood he liked painting and making copies from postcards. He lived in Moscow and used to earn his living selling his pictures in Sukharevka - the famous Moscow «flee» market. He worked as an engineer in the metallurgical industry. After retiring in the 1980s, he resumed painting. In 1988-89, he began to sell his paintings in the newly established street market in Moscow on Arbat. It attracted the attention of collectors. Later he performed the orders of collectors. His first personal exhibition was held in Moscow in 1994.
He lived and died in Pushkino, the Moscow region. Grigoryev’s works are unique in Russian art, they serve as an example of the transformation of the national picture (in the folk terminology - «kovrik (rug)») into original works of naive art. Grigoriyev’s favorite scenes such as «Fair in Kirzhach», «Night», «Landscape with a Pond» were reproduced in dozens of variants. All of them in their own way interpret the motifs used by the producers of «rugs» - a pond with swans, a mermaid, a house under the moon sky in a snow-covered forest, hunting scenes, etc. But Grigoriyev never mechanically repeated his works, each is unique in a combination and variety of parts, as well as the size of components. He began to paint on oilcloth and plywood - the traditional materials of the folk picture, then went to work with paper and canvas. Grigoriyev’s works express a holiday of colours, which are subtly harmonized. Thanks to regular repetitions, a picture, whether it’s a fish in a still-life, a dog or birches in the Russian landscape, is refined and exquisite. In the second half of the 1980s and the early 1990s, when his works began to appear at exhibitions in Moscow, Grigoriyev, either inspired by his art lovers, or himself came up with new subjects: «Chudovishche (Monster)», «New Year Tree”, «Easter Still Life», «Still Life with Parrots» (he really kept parrots in his tiny apartment).
