Russian Artist's Love for India to be Manifested on Canvas at Orchid Gallery

Media Release

Mangalore, May 17: Orchid Art Gallery will host an exhibition of mixed media paintings on canvas and paper titled 'Bharatnatyam' by Elena Fedosenko who hails from Moscow, Russia.

The exhibition will be inaugurated on Friday May 20 at 6 pm and will be open for public viewing till May 31. The exhibition is curated by Goa-based Mangalorean action-abstract painter Deviprasad C Rao.

Elena Fedosenko studied art at Moscow Pedagogical State University, where she graduated as a teacher of visual art and drawing. She has worked as a newspaper caricaturist, taught painting and colour theory, and participated in several group shows in Moscow and London. She is currently visiting India.

Elena says that she has been engaged in a love affair with India, its colourful traditions and classical dances since childhood. This exhibition, Bharatnatyam, is a tribute to that love, she adds.

In this body of work, comprised of paintings using acrylic and oil on canvas and acrylic, pastel and ink on paper, Elena is predominantly preoccupied with movement, and with colour or its absence, preoccupations that manifest themselves in a variety of styles and techniques. The canvas work presents an interactive dialogue between the abstract and the figurative. Colour mixing is not an exact science and Elena has her own experimental formulas and methods for mixing and applying colour in her painting.

The abstract portions of the compositions are a riot of overlapping colours in swirls, executed using both brush and palette knife, to produce layers of varying colour depths, as well as the visual impression of movement against which the figurative dance form is projected. In the black and white works on paper, the suggestion of posture and gesture in transition, and their essence, are evinced without the aid of colourful background swirls through effective blurring of the female form. It is clear from the presentation of form in both media that Elena has an academic appreciation of Bharatnatyam.

Elena says she chose this particular dance form because of its grace and flowing character, her purpose being to capture the spirit of Bharatnayam, which she has managed quite adeptly.