Elena Shkvarkina

Painting (MA)
Profile picture of Elena Shkvarkina, smiling warmly at the camera, with long brown hair dropping to the right side of her shoulder, against her canary yellow painting hanging on the wall, black hanging conical lamp and wooden speaker to the right.
Film clipping where lit in deep orange light, a black woman's figure holding a big black painting in motion in the shadow casting another shadow on the wall.
Film clipping where lit in deep orange light, a black woman's figure holding a big black painting in motion in the shadow casting another shadow on the wall.
Litany for Ancestral Healing, 2025, performance film clipping
Artwork by Elena Shkvarkina titled Paradox of Unknowing. Golden yellow brass box with hard shaped overlapping edges, patinated with warm brown and pastel viridian washes, size 29x32x29.5cm. View from the right side
Artwork by Elena Shkvarkina titled Paradox of Unknowing. Golden yellow brass box with hard shaped overlapping edges, patinated with warm brown and pastel viridian washes, size 29x32x29.5cm. View from the right side
Paradox of Unknowing, 2025, laser cut brass, patina, 29H x 32W x 29.5D cm
Artwork by Elena Shkvarkina titled Rapture. Black textured painting hanging on a white wall with ghost like trace in the middle
Artwork by Elena Shkvarkina titled Rapture. Black textured painting hanging on a white wall with ghost like trace in the middle
Rapture, 2025, tourmaline and bone black pigments on paper mounted on wooden panel reinforced with aluminium, 70 x 50 x 3cm
Artwork detail by Elena Shkvarkina titled Rapture. Black textured painting
Artwork detail by Elena Shkvarkina titled Rapture. Black textured painting
Rapture, 2025 (detail), tourmaline and bone black pigments on paper mounted on wooden panel reinforced with aluminium, 150 x 100 x 3 cm
Film clipping where lit in deep orange light, a black woman's figure holding a big black painting in motion in the shadow casting another shadow on the wall.
Artwork by Elena Shkvarkina titled Paradox of Unknowing. Golden yellow brass box with hard shaped overlapping edges, patinated with warm brown and pastel viridian washes, size 29x32x29.5cm. View from the right side
Artwork by Elena Shkvarkina titled Rapture. Black textured painting hanging on a white wall with ghost like trace in the middle
Artwork detail by Elena Shkvarkina titled Rapture. Black textured painting

About

Elena Shkvarkina (b.1988) is a Russian-British multidisciplinary artist living and working in London. While painting remained the anchor point for her work on the Painting MA at the Royal Collage of Art (2025), she also expanded her practice to installations, sound, film and live performances.

While honouring Nihonga’s traditional use of pigments, she abandons brushwork in its entirety, manipulating the paint on the surface with her body movements and gravity. Informed by laws of motion and natural weathering events, Elena devises sonic painting machines that, moving in trance-like unison, act as her somatic extension. Her ritualistic dance manifests in ridges of texture and metallic, rumbling soundscapes. Investigating how we can recalibrate our psyches towards a more harmonious relationship with rhythms of nature, Elena draws parallels between the rotation of the Earth and the gentle rocking of a child in its parent’s arms.

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