Friday, 17 July 2009
On June 7, 2009, The Belarus Museum in Brooklyn hosted an opening reception of the exhibition ”Dreams and Reflections” of the Belarusian artist Yelena Tylkina. This retrospective contained a dramatic and colorful presentation of 34 works, including watercolor still lifes, pastel interiors, surrealistic acrylic paintings, and ink and pencil fantasy drawings from 1979 to 2009.
The honorary guest, Zenon Paznyak, the renown critic and exiled Belarusian political figure, gave a perceptive and emotional speech, discussing the complex, 30 years long journey of Tylkina’s artistic vision. After Zenon Poznyak’s encouraging critique, the artist, Yelena Tylkina gave a statement - explanation about her artistic beliefs and influences. Art lovers of New York City from different cultural backgrounds and supporters of the Belarus Museum had a wonderful time, enjoying the diversities of Yelena Tylkinas’s extraordinary art, Belarusian cuisine and passionate debates on art, politics and world affairs.
Yelena Tylkina is a new and active member of the traveling Belarusian art exhibition ”Art against Dictatorship”, working hand to hand with famous Belarusian artists such as Ales Marochkin, Ales Shaternik, Mikola Kupava and others. Artists Yelena Tylkina and Julia Shaternik are the feminine force of the Belarusian Museum which is going to leave a mark in the history of art.
Yelena Tylkina was born in 1965, in the City of Orsha, Vitebsk Province, Belarus. She had her first exhibition at the age of 13. She completed all her Art education in Belarus and Russia with honors. Her studies in art included oil, acrylic, watercolor and pastel painting, graphics, sculpture, murals, and portraiture.
Each and every one of her works is a philosophical, social and psychoanalytical essay which is contemporary yet timeless, emotionally deep and always professionally executed. Yelena Tylkina creates a poetic world which is real, sublime and spiritual. Her style of work includes Figurative Symbolism, Surrealism, Imaginary Realism, Graffiti and Erotica.
In 1989, she immigrated to United States and lives in New York City.
Yelena Tylkina has won several awards and honors for her contribution to the art world nationally and internationally and her work is included in many private and corporate collections all over the globe.
Yelena Tylkina has had seven solo exhibitions, over thirty group exhibitions, five T.V. and radio appearances to her credit, and over twenty articles in numerous art magazines and newspapers such as the “Noticias de Arte” Spanish language art newspaper, “Manhattan Art International” magazine, “Russian Bazaar”, “Metro”, “Forward”’ “Evening New York”, “Hellas News”, and others. Her work has been exhibited in several museums in the United States, including:
The Belarus Museum, Brooklyn, New York
The C.A.S.E. Museum of Contemporary Russian Art, Jersey City, New Jersey
The City University of New York, Queens Borough College Art Museum, Queens, New York
The Northwest Museum of Art and Culture, Spokane, Washington
The Jemison- Carnegie Heritage Hall Museum, Talladega, Alabama
The Museum of Contemporary Art, Baltimore, Maryland
The Coral Springs Museum of Arts, Coral Spring City Center, Florida
The Ann Norton Museum, West Palm Beach, Florida
Yelena Tylkina’s Statement
Salmon swim against the fast river current to return to the place of their origin in order to create new life. The same power that guides the salmon –memory - also guides us back to the place which we came from.
For me, it was a very emotional and beautiful moment to participate in a recent group exhibition called ”Art Against Dictatorship” at the Belarus Museum on the exact anniversary day of my departure from Belarus, 20 years ago this past March 22.
I was born in the city Orsha in 1965. I grew up on the outskirts of my town, in a tiny house without any plumbing and with only a little fire place that gave almost no comfort in the bitter Belarus winter. But the happiness of childhood is an endless green space of government fields to run and play barefoot with friends. At the time, I didn’t know that we were all very poor, because all of provincial Belarus was equally affected by the difficult circumstances of the Soviet Era.
At the age of eight, I received my first art education at The House of Young Pioneers. Then, fortunately, a good art school opened and my artistic journey began. My training included watercolor, oil painting, graphics, and my favorite: portraiture.
My inspiration comes from that Higher Power, that divine source -God. The Great Creator, who gave us a planet to live upon, air to breathe, light to see, made nothing in vain. Everything on Earth is beautiful and has a purpose behind its existence. Our Earth is only a small part of the endless space that we call a cosmos. The size, depth and influence upon us of this cosmic space are hard to comprehend. However, I am certain that we all contribute an important part to the flow of life. Everyone is equally necessary and important: the cleaning lady, the carpenter, bus driver, doctor, musician, poet, and even the artist.
I am an artist. My hope is to become a great one. The artist is merely a tool in the hands of God in depicting the beauty and infinity of his creation in all its possible forms. We, as artists, merely copy the works of the great creator, the master artist and teacher of us all.
We all have dreams and hopes for the future and our deeds are reflections of those dreams. Very often, I use myself as a model for my work. Because the first look should be at one’s self, then only after reconstructing one’s self into a better human being, can we hope to teach others through personal example.
God works in mysterious ways. A journey to comprehend Divine Will is different for each person. It is my wish that viewers will see beauty and love in my work as a reflection of their own inner world in my “looking glass” art.
