Elena Monastyreva

Elena Monastyreva

I am a Russian-born visual artist and writer based in Melbourne, Australia. Having lived for many years in Auckland, New Zealand, I bring experiences of different places and cultures to a practice that moves between painting, drawing, collage and painted prints.

My work explores the meeting point between everyday life and imagination. Faces, female figures, floating bodies and symbolic architectural forms inhabit spaces where natural proportions give way to emotional relationships. A face may become a landscape; a gesture may hold a story. I am interested in the tension between the sacred and the playful, vulnerability and strength, recognition and mystery.

My influences include Russian avant-garde art, icon painting and the imaginative worlds of Marc Chagall and Paul Klee. Colour, expressive lines and circular rhythms help me bring these interests into a personal visual language.

Experimentation with materials is central to my practice. I use oils, acrylics, ink, textured surfaces and found paper. In some works, I construct a printing surface from different materials, apply printing ink, take an impression and then paint directly onto the print. The resulting image develops through the interaction of deliber...

2022 — RMIT University, Melbourne, Australia
Bachelor of Fine Arts.

2007 — Bachelor’s degree, New Zealand.

Ongoing — Independent artistic study and studio practice, exploring painting, printmaking, collage and mixed media.

2020 — Exhibition, Studio One, Auckland, New Zealand.

Student Exhibition — RMIT University, Melbourne, Australia, 2021