Elena Putley

Elena was born and raised in Moldova, but in the last 30 years she has lived and worked in UK. Her work exists between the real and the imaginary, representation and abstraction. Elena’s paintings explore beauty, chaos and predictability of urban landscape built up gradually over time. Some cityscapes are derived from her travels and firsthand observations, and some are from images found on the internet, mirroring how specific locations are drawn together by their similarities, which are surprisingly bigger than the differences. Elena combines traditional painting techniques with less conventional methods: laser etched drawings and grid-system structures applied over pre-painted surfaces. Through the rendering of colour, texture and composition, she focuses on atmosphere, memories and connections.

Main influences on her work at the moment are early Cubists, Pavel Filonov, Rauschenberg, Mark Bradford, Lars Elling, Deborah Tarr, Paul Noble,

1980-1982 Art Foundation in Repin College of Art – Moldova.
1983-1989 Degree in sculptural ceramics at Academy of Music, Theatre and Fine Arts of Moldova, Kishinev

2000-2002 MA in Art and Design, Leeds Metropolitan University, UK

National and International exhibitions:

North Yorkshire Open Studios 2025

North Yorkshire Open Studios 2024

North Yorkshire Open Studios 2023

NY Open Studios 2019, Harrogate

2019 Positive Emotions, Kunsthuis Gallery, York

2018 Kunsthuis Gallery, York
Our eARTh exhibition 2018, Group exhibition

2018 Sunnybankmills Gallery,
Neighbourhood, Group Exhibition, Leeds

2017 Anise Gallery. Nasty Women: Architecture
13a Shad Thames
Group Gallery

2017 Kunsthuis Gallery
Shades of Clay
Group Exhibition

2017 Merser Gallery, Harrogate
Harrogate Open 2017
Group Exhibition

2016 Treasure and Relish, Ripon, North Yorkshire
Solo Exhibition

2015 Sunny Bank Mills, Leeds
Group Exhibition/Competition - Highly Commended.

2015 North Yorkshire Open Studios, Harrogate
2014 “From the collections of Moldova’s Museum of Fine Arts”, Kishinev, Moldova
2013 “Harrogate Open” Group Exhibition
2007 Gascoigne Gallery, Harrogate
2002 Group Exhibition “To be confirmed” Leeds Met University Gallery, UK
1998 Harrogate Gift Fair, Students exhibition.
1994 Solo Exhibition, Culture foundation, Bucharest, Romania.
1993 Commission for the International Ionesco Theatre Festival, Kishinev
1992 “From the collections of Moldova’s Museum of F...