About

Yelena was born in Almaty, the Republic of Kazakhstan and lived there until 1997, when she immigrated to the United States. Her interest in graphic arts became apparent when she began painting posters for her school using water-colors and gouache paints. After high school she participated in an exhibition of amateur works in the Academy of Science of the Republic of Kazakhstan. She was featured again in a personal exhibition at the Central Gallery of Almaty. At the time, her works were illustrative in nature and often seemed to unintentionally depict the people around her in the forms of creatures in vibrant places. 

After moving to the United States of America her works were displayed and sold at the Sloane Gallery of contemporary Russian Art in Denver, Colorado. Yelena produced few paintings in the decade after the migration, until she decided to seriously address her interest in painting by enrolling at Houston’s Glassel School of Art in 2007. 

In 2017 Yelena temporarily relocated to Brazil, where she began to focus her work on the colorful details and textures of nature, which abundantly fill the streets and parks of Rio De Janeiro.  She took art classes at the Brazilian school of visual art, the “Parque Lage” with professor Luis Ernesto. At the same time Yelena embarked on a new journey to study ceramics at the “O Atelier” of Angela Contarino.

Through her art she experiments with applications of various media, such as gravel, sand, and gold leaf to construct mystical, dark characters and dream-like settings. Yelena’s art works are products of raw and uncontrived sadness, anger, joy, and love; they are born from a fluid and playful subconscious that she does not like to analyze. If you try to ask Yelena about her work, don’t be taken aback by a joke in response, her paintings are opened to personal exploration.