Sergei Esayan was born in Moscow. His father, journalist Aramais Mikhailovich was subjected to repression in 1938, several months before his son’s birth. He died in the GULag (Chief Administration of Corrective Labor Camps and Colonies). His mother Serafima Teodorovna was a pediatrician; at the last years of her life, she headed consultative clinic under the Morozov Children’s hospital.

Esayan entered Moscow School of Industrial Art named after M. I. Kalinin (MKhPU) in 1954. One year later, he transferred to Moscow Art College in the Memory of the Year 1905 (MKhU), which he finished in 1960. At the same time Esayan attended classes of theatre design in the State Institute of Theatre Arts (GITIS). At that time the artist was interested in avant-garde (poetry, music, theatre).

Later Esayan worked in restoration workshops, gave lessons in painting and drawing, in English.

Esayan painted at home. At that time he painted small paintings, which were exposed at his personal exhibition in the Institute for Physical Problems in 1965 (the series Master and Margarita, Trumpeters in the city and others)

From 1968 till 1975 Esayan worked as an editor of one of the departments of the magazine USSR Decorative Art.

In 1973 the personal exhibition of Esayan was held in the art salon (at Sireneviy Boulevard). Artist’s canvases The Tower of Babel, Outskirts, A beauty in front of the mirror, Jewish wedding (oil on wood) and others were shown at this exhibition.

Since 1970 Esayan worked in the workshop at Pechatnikov lane. There he created a series of drawings, canvases and sculptures on the themes of Prodigal son, Concert, In studio, Beach, Figures in landscape, Trumpeters, Apostles, Seaman and whore, Hanged men.

In 1978 Esayan submitted his documents for departure from the USSR, left his position in editorial board and at the same time he lost his studio in Pechatnikov lane. Till his departure from the country, the artist worked on the series of cardboards Blankets, Emergent, the series of still lifes Fishes, the series of assemblages Emergent in the studio, which was lent to him by his friend I. Petrov.

In January 1979 Esayan emigrated from the USSR and settled in Vienna, where he continued to work on his series. The personal exhibition of the artist was held in May 1979, where the series Screens, Backs and The Way of the Cross was shown.

Since 1980 Esayan lived and worked in Paris. The series Landscapes and Meals, painted in Montparnasse studio, were exposed in the gallery Art et Décoration. At the same year the artist took part in biennale of graphic art in Touquet, where he was awarded gold medal. Esayan exposed his works at the exhibitions in Le Point Galerie d’Art Moderne in Monte Carlo and in the gallery ACAP in Touquet.

In 1982 Esayan created scene and costume design for the performance Doctor Dappertutto and The Robinson Syndrome (after the play by Al. Khvostenko), by the order of Swedish theatre Shahrazad. In late 1980s the artist created scene and costume design for the operetta The Cage of the Virgins in Karlstad (Sweden), for the opera-ballet Balaganchik (“Show Booth”) in the Royal Opera in Stockholm, for the opera The English Cat by Hans Werner Henze. Along with set design, at the same time Esayan worked on the series Divers and Bathers.

The personal exhibition of the artist Waiting for Charlotte Corday was held in Baden; the book with the same title was published in 1988. Esayan exposed his series The Abduction of Europe at the exhibition in Cologne.

In 1991 Esayan was granted the studio in the artists’ town near Buttes-Chaumont. There the artist created the series Seated Figures (exhibition in Strasbourg, 1991), Travels (exhibition in Mulhouse, 1993), Runners, Marathon, Heads — painting and sculpture.

In 2000 the exhibition Heads was held in the Gallery de Buci in Paris.

In 2002 the retrospective exhibition of Sergei Esayan was organized in the State Russian Museum; the series Interiors, Good Morning, Rooms and reliefs City Walls were exposed there.

In 2003–2005 the artist worked on the conceptual project House and Views, which became a part of the book Four projects, published in 2006.

The last works by Sergei Esayan — the series Windows and Lozenges — were realized in 2006.