Alena Kuznetsova
professional independent artist since 2008, whose main art practices are painting and sculpture.
Alena Kuznetsova studied Fine Arts at the Kyiv National University of Construction and Architecture. She has attended classes and workshops internationally: at the School of Contemplative painting (Dornach, Switzerland), MARI’s School of Contemporary Art (Kyiv, Ukraine), The School of Visual Communications (Kyiv, Ukraine), and New Art School (Kyiv, Ukraine). In her career as an artist, Alena has worked with various mediums, but specialises in painting.
Since 2008 Alena has been actively exhibiting her work, hosting 13 solo shows in Kyiv as well as many group showcases in Ukraine and abroad (London, Berlin, Madrid, and Krakow). Some of Alena’s works of art are now in private collections across Ukraine, Great Britain, the USA, Switzerland, Germany, Spain and Italy. She participated in the Bodensee Art Fair (Dornbirn, Austria, 2019) and the International Art Fair in Seoul, Korea (2018), and was a finalist for the Objects Art Prize in 2019 and 2020. She has been an artist in residence with Nazar Voitovich Residency (Travneve, Ukraine) in 2018 and 2021, and with Cultural Traffic Ukraine (Vyzhnitsa, Ukraine) in 2022.
In the last two years, Alena has returned her focus to figurative painting and sculpture after spending 12 years working with colour as an independent medium. Reflecting on this change, Alena considers how the premonition of war might have directed her style towards the figurative, pushing her away from abstract forms that are ‘entirely separated from reality.’ Alena’s aim for now– and until the victory of Ukraine– is to spread information about the war, and to help her friends and countrymen who are protecting her homeland from invasion.
Alena lives and works in Kyiv.
Works
Broad Perspective
Series of paintings
So many people have had to travel by car to other districts in Ukraine, as well as to other countries. They have changed places, exchanged homes. ‘Broad Perspective’ is about movement, a process that puts you into a trance, it absorbs. It is, in general, a place that’s missing: you seem to be “nowhere” during movement.
Fantastic mushrooms (Algorithm of nature)
‘Fantastic mushrooms’ is my personal ode to nature. If you look closely, you will see: nature has a mathematical essence. Water ripples and mushrooms are just hints.
I have always considered nature to be my fundamental source of inspiration. It gives me peace and reminds me to be strong. The cyclical and mathematical essence of nature is a miracle to me. It shows us that everything in the world is connected. Mycelium networks, as well as the patterns on the surface of water, remind us that we are interconnected through both invisible networks and whirlpools of beauty. We are part of nature; our bodies are built with the same principles as the rivers, the mushrooms, the clouds, and the forests. I feel nowadays how united and decentralized the Ukrainian community is, as it continues to fight with evil. Much like fungi.
