Artist Statement
Within my artistic practice, I create oil paintings, watercolors, and sculptural objects to focus on issues of gender, body, and the self. I explore different aspects of human existence through the subject, a woman searching for and creating her identity, and finding self-empowerment.
This woman asknowledges herself, her body, and her sexuality. She seeks and positions herself in a world that is full of ambitions, disappointments, and patriarchal attitudes, a modern, constantly changing society, where globalization, migration, and real politics occur.
I see the female body as a source of vitality, desire, and power. My attention to the body comes from my immigrant experience. I left my country and everything I had, but my body is inseparable. It belongs only to me. It physically presents itself, like an anchor connecting me with reality.
Bio
Elena Chestnykh was born in Novosibirsk, Russia, and currently, lives and works in New York. She has exhibited both nationally and internationally including at the Museum of Contemporary Art Erarta (MCAE) in Saint-Petersburg, the Art Center WINZAVOD, in Moscow, the Art State Museum of Novosibirsk, in Russia, and Nord Art 2010, Rendsburg, Germany.
In 2013, "Urban Reflections" traveled to the New York Erarta Gallery and became Chestnykh’s first solo exhibition in the United States. In 2022, Elena Chestnykh’s personal exhibition "Woman in Landscape" was presented at Space 776 Gallery, NYC. In 2023, her solo show "Songs of Summer" was shown at The Untitled Space Gallery, NYC. Also, Chestnykh's artwork was exhibited in group shows at The Untitled Space, SFAprojects Gallery, The Royal Gallery in NYC, Trenton Artwork Center, NJ, and The Feminist Biennial at Woman Made Gallery, Chicago, Il.