Elena Kallistova

Born in 1964 in Moscow, Elena is a graduate of the Moscow Stroganov Art School. Since 1990 she has actively participated in art exhibitions in Russia and other countries, including the NB Gallery in Russia and the J.E. Stallion International Gallery in the United States. Today, she resides and works in Moscow, Russia.

Since her childhood, Elena Kallistova's dreamlike visions have made her search for ways of expression. And "dreamlike vision" is perhaps the best way to describe what she has achieved in her paintings. Her paintings are full of dames and chevalier's, fairy tale princes and princesses, dogs and children who all seem to be wandering through her compositions in a sort of universal game of chess, or a world of Alice in Wonderland. Yet at the same time, these works reflect a frescolike depiction of various cultures throughout history, creating an impression of a deep link to the history of humanity.

In her opinion, a picture's emotional potential is the most important facet of her creative work. She believes that colors are like human beings, which can render the magic of those emotions and feelings. While her abstractly ornamental interpretation of clothes and objects bring to mind Austrian and German Art Nouveau, Kallistova presents Art Nouveau through the prism of Expressionism and even Fauvism.

Kallistova's art is both sensual and conceptual. The peculiar language of line and colors and the whimsical carnival-like subjects reflect the tendency to illusion, to the concrete sensual world and to the world of fantasy. Through the means of expressive yet affected, chaste and sensual paintings, she creates her own isolated and unreal world, gifted with attractive power that arouses viewer's curiosity. Elena's paintings not only bringing joy, but also captivate us with promises, give the hope of game endless changes, and inexhaustible transformations, and create mobile, unexpected, fantastic and paradoxical reality

Selected Exhibitions:

1999-present Grant Gallery, SOHO, New York

2005 Solo Show, Grant Gallery, SOHO, New York

1997 "On the Eve of Pisces Sign", Future Classic Gallery, Moscow, Russia

1996 "Russian Expressions", The Center of Contemporary Art, Hannover, Germany

"Art Expo-96", Jacob Javits Center, New York, New York

"EUROP"ART", Galerie RUsse de Centre, Geneva, Switzerland

"Art Manege-96", The Central Exhibition Hall, Manezh, Moscow, Russia

1995 "A Bicycle Trip", Three Houses Gallery, Moscow, Russia

"Meal", the Central House of Artists, Moscow, Russia

"Fishes", Three Houses Gallery, Moscow, Russia

"Sochi-Salekhard", The State Literary Museum, Moscow, Russia