Maria Felix & Cartier Painting

Elvira Pyrkova is an artist, costume designer and portraitist living in the United Kingdom. She studied at the Moscow Academic Art Lyceum of the Surikov Moscow State Academic Art Institute (МАХЛ РАХ бывш. МСХШ); the Gerasimov All-Russia State University of Cinematography (ВГИК). She lived ten years in Mexico and exhibited regularly in Mexico City and other important cities such as Monterrey, Puebla and Guanajuato; hers was the only entry by a foreign artist in the book 'Huella entre Milenios' which highlighted the work of modern Mexican artists of the turn of the century. In the United Kingdom her work has been featured in galleries and art fairs in cities like London, Manchester, Sheffield, Leeds, Bournemouth, Birmingham and Stratford upon Avon. She was a finalist for the Garrick-Milne Prize; the painting short-listed for this award was exhibited and sold at Christie's London: a portrait of the famous Russian actor Innokenti Smoktunovsky. Her work was twice short-listed for the Royal Birmingham Society of Artists' Prize. Elvira Pyrkova's paintings are part of private collections in Japan, France, Germany, Russia, Mexico, Canada, the United States and Great Britain, as are paintings and commissioned portraits of select collectors like Isabel Goldsmith and Mario Moreno Reyes ‘Cantinflas’ Foundation. Likewise, her recent body of work revolving around equine sports is proving popular exhibited in galleries in the top racetracks and polo fields of the UK, UAE and elsewhere. Her costume design drafts for Shakespeare's 'Taming of the Shrew' were exhibited at the famed 'Manezh' Art Centre in Moscow, Russia, as part of the exhibition 'Hello Italy'. Her paintings also exhibited in 'L'Art Russe a Honfleur', 'Russian Contemporary Art', Saint-Trojan-les-Bains, and 'Les Couleurs de l'imaginaire' in the Loire Valley, 'La Clé des Portes' festival in Mer, all of them in France. Her painting 'Ladies Day at Ascot' was auctioned in Bonhams Russian Art Sale. Recently, she was winner of the 'Luxury' contest organized by The Art Newspaper Russia; her works have twice been on the cover of this newspaper. The first print of her newly designed scarf for Enthi is being auctioned for charity by the Cherie Blair Foundation for Women- 100.000 Fashion Auction. Her portrait 'Maria Felix and Cartier' was auctioned for charity at a gala for Fundación Kristen, A.C. at the Embassy of Mexico in London.