Vladimir Nemukhin was born in Moscow in 1925. He first studied in the artistic studio of Petr Sokolov, a former student of Kazimir Malevich. He entered the Studio School of the House of Unions (VTsSPS), which he completed in 1946.
One of the earliest representatives of nonofficial art in Soviet Russia, he was heavily influenced by the 1958 exhibition of American art in Moscow, at which he was first exposed to the Abstract Expressionism of Jackson Pollock, Barnette Newman, and Willem de Kooning.
In 1959 Nemukhin completed his first abstract work of art and perceived this moment as an act of liberating himself. The future development of his art included the use of card symbolism, the exploration of the unpredictable in art and life, of fate and gambling.
Together with Rabin, in 1974 Nemukhin organized the momentous first exhibition of free art in Russia, later renamed the Bulldozer Exhibition.
More recently he has worked in the genre of Object Art, creating sculptural tributes to his fellow artists in the tradition of metaphysical symbolism and Dada. Nemukhin lives and works in Düsseldorf, Germany.