He studied at the Pedagogical University in Khabarovsk, worked there as a lecturer, and then moved to Leningrad (now St. Petersburg) in 1971 – without permission from the authorities.

He soon found his way into the nonconformist art scene and secretly organized the first happenings and performances to take place in the USSR. His works, which at that time already included sound objects, were shown at the few exhibitions of unofficial art that he helped organize. They attracted considerable attention, for example at the Institute of Contemporary Art in London, the Arts Club in Washington, DC, the Venice Biennale (1977), as well as the National Museum of Art in Tokyo (1978).

In 1978, Sacharow-Ross was expatriated, arriving in Munich by way of Vienna. From 1979 to 1996, the artist spent extended periods of time working in France, Belgium, Italy, Tanzania and Israel.

In the 1980s, Sacharow-Ross began working with molecular structures, such as cancer cells and leaf forms. The artist already at that point sought to combine natural science with considerations from the humanities. He works in a variety of media. The projects from the 1980s, which mediate between art and science, are research projects concretized in spatial installations.

Since the 1990s, his projects have become increasingly larger, both in terms of space and content. With the backdrop of the concept of syntopy, he has developed forms of artistic expression for communication spanning various media at the intersection of aesthetics and everyday thinking and acting.

Igor Sacharow-Ross lives and works in Cologne and Munich.