 In 1995, Tcherkelov studied impasto painting with Jörg Immendorff in Amsterdam with a grant from the Felix Meritis Foundation.Not until he arrived in New York City in 2000, however, did he begin to work exclusively using this technique.Art critic Eleanor Heartney, in an introduction to Tcherkelov's series of impasto paintings based on images from currency, writes that they present "symbols mined from American currency as keys to understand national dreams and fantasies."