I paint archetypes. When a chair isn't really a chair, a flower isn't really a rose, and a face isn't really a portrait. Since the painting itself is the main subject - it is my main focus. I am left with surface, time, space and my own emotion. It is already too much to handle. In order to make my point across I simplify everything else. In the finished work I strive for physical, as well as emotional depth in the layers of paint. At the same time being cautious not to “overdo” them. I prefer my paintings "breathing", with a lacuna of space here and there. They are in transition, they are all becoming, just like myself.
It's been a long road, almost 40 years spent in front of an easel. A life long of doing and thinking: what do I want to share with my paintings? I like to think of my artworks as "sonnets" (a poetic form of a specific structure for expressing courtly love) - conveying my admiration for life, art, beauty and enchantment in a format of a painting. I communicate my feelings and emotions in paint, its color and its plasticity. The way I am treating the surface - sometimes unsaid, sometimes undone - is an important part of each image. I try to make them as exciting and vibrant as I can in their seemingly repetitiveness. (How do you say "I love you" in so many ways?!). I treat every painting as a challenge, in-tuned for that single true bright note, that I can start building the magic on. Allowing my sense of time and personal identity to dissolve into another dimension.
Born: 1961, Moscow, Russia
Education: MFA from the Moscow Cinema Academy, 1987
Awards, Grants, Residencies:
2008 - Visual Aid's Jerome Caja Terrible Beauty Award, San Francisco, CA
2007 - Award of Excellence, Cash Prize at Northern National Art Competition, Nicolett College,
WI Best in the Show, Cash Prize at Loyola National Works on Paper, Chicago, IL
2005 - Award of Excellence: 46th Communication Arts Annual Illustration Exhibition, CA
- Full Fellowship from Helene Wurlitzer Foundation, Taos, New Mexico
- Best in the Show "Dimensions 2005", 40th National Exhibition, Winston-Salem, NC
2004 - Award of Excellence: SDAI 48th International Exhibition, San Diego, CA
2003 - Full Fellowship from Vermont Studio Center, Johnson, Vermont
1997 - Grant from the Paul Beckett Foundation, Denmark / Spain
1993 - Gold Medal: Mid-Atlantic Watercolor Exhibition, Baltimore, MD
1993 - Merit Award: 36th Annual Illustration Exhibition, Society of Illustrators, NY
1991 - Merit Award: 27th Annual Illustration Exhibition, Society of Publication Design, NY
Solo Exhibitions:
2009 - Paul Mahder Gallery: "Basic", San Francisco, CA 2006
- Franklin Bowles Gallery, San Francisco, CA
- B. Boeltz Gallery, Denver, CO
2005 - Barbara Anderson Gallery: "Closer", Berkeley, CA
2004 - Open Studios, ArtSpan San Francisco, CA
2003 - Bucci's, Emeryville, CA
2002 - East Bay Open Studios, Berkeley, CA
2001 - Addison Street Windows, Sponsored by the Berkeley Civic Arts Commission,
Berkeley, CA
2000 - Albatross, Berkeley, CA
1998 - Harbor Square Gallery, Rockland, ME
1997 - Russian Embassy, Washington D.C., curated by Diane Beal
Selected Group Exhibitions:
2015 – Pryor Fine Art
2012- Pryor Fine Art, 3 person show, Atlanta, GA
2011 – Pryor Fine Art, Fall Salon, Atlanta, GA
2010 - "Cimmerian Muse: Exploring The Gesters Of The Mind" Nieto Fine Art, San Francisco CA
- "The Figure Now" Fontbonne University Fine Arts Gallery, St.Lois, MO.
Juried by Sofie Jodoin, Alex Kanevsky and Nicholas Uribe
2008 - Two Artists Show, Paule Anglim Gallery, San Francisco, CA
2007 - Loyola National Works on Paper, Crown Center Gallery Loyola University of Chicago,
- Juried by Dan Addington, Director of Gwenda Jay/Addington Gallery, Chicago IL
- Northern National Art Competition, juried by Allan Peterson, Nicolett College, WI
- Micaela Gallery: "Salon d'Ete 2007", San Francisco, CA
- Rotunda Gallery, USF School of Law, curated by Saiko Matsumaru. San Francisco, CA
- Paul Mahder Gallery, San Francisco, CA
2006 - SFMOMA Artists Gallery: "Finding the Figure", San Francisco, CA
2005 - 20th Annual Conservatory Art Classic, juried by Tony Eubanks, Clifton, TX
- Micaela Gallery: "Salon d'Ete 2005", San Francisco, CA
- "Dimensions 2005" 40th National Exhibition juried by Phillip Koch, Winston-Salem, NC
- Yerba Buena Center for the Arts: Visual Aid at 16, San Francisco, CA
- San Diego Art Institute: 48th International Exhibition, juried by Derrick C. Cartwright,
Director of the San Diego - Museum of Art Market Street Gallery:
"Erotic Art Show", San Francisco, CA
2004 - Blue Room Gallery, San Francisco, CA Barbara Anderson Gallery:
"Works on Paper", Berkeley, CA
- ARTWALK at the Embarcadero Center, curated by ArtSpan, San Francisco, CA
2003 - Catharine Clark Gallery: SPICE Visual Aid Artists, San Francisco, CA
- San Diego Art Institute: 46th International Exhibition, San Diego, CA
2002 - Vorpal Gallery: "Beaux & Eros", San Francisco, CA
2001 - SFMOMA Artists Gallery 4 Artist Show, San Francisco, CA
- Vorpal Gallery: "The Year 2001- Art Odyssey", San Francisco, CA
1999 - Museum of American Illustration: SPD Gala Annual, New York, NY
- Art Expo: Finalists of the Art Calendar Magazine's Competition, New York, NY
- James E. Lewis Museum of Art, Morgan State University, Baltimore, MD
- Sloane Gallery, Denver, CO
1997 - Springfield Art Museum: Watercolor USA Honor Society, 6th Biennial Exhibition
- "Maryland Artists" Government House, Annapolis, MD
- Lancaster Museum of Art: "Creating Women", Lancaster, PA
1996 - Eastern New Mexico University: "Form and Metaphor" Hodson Gallery:
"Made in the USA", Hood College, Frederick, MD
1995 - Regional Mid-Atlantic Watercolor Exhibition, Baltimore, MD 1994
Zenith Gallery, Washington D.C.
1993 - New York City Public Library: SPD Gala Annual, New York, NY
- Galerie Francoise, Green Spring, MD 1992 Zimmerly Art Museum: Norton Dodge's
Collection of Soviet Art, Rutgers University, NJ
Selected Publications:
2009 - Etnosfera Magazine: "Elena Zolotnitsky - Creativity Is A Personal Affair". Interviwe with
Yulia Goryacheva, Issue #11 (134), Moscow Russia
2008 - 7x7 San Francisco Magazine: "Watch This Space" by Christine Ryan.
November Issue p.120
2005 - 46th Annual Communication Arts, p.107 2004 Green Mountain Review:
Cover, Vol. XVII, No. 2
2003 - Baltimore Magazine: "A Selection of Contemporary Russian Artwork" by John Lewis,
- February Issue pp. 122-123
2001 - BOA Editions Limited: Cover for Parphenope by Michael Waters
2000 - NY Times Book Review Cover: "Thus Spake Beowulf" February 27th
1999 - BOA Editions Limited: Cover for Dusty Angel by Michael Blumenthal
1997 - "Painting Composition" Rockport Publishers: Award of Distinction
- "The Best of Watercolor 2" Rockport Publishers: Award of Distinction
- Intelligencer Journal "Happenings", March Issue: "Bold or Fractured, Images From
Women's Selves" by Jennifer Knopf. Cover Story on "Creating Women",
Lancaster Museum of Art, PA
1996 - Frederick Gazette: "Six Very Good Reasons To See "Made in the USA by Richard
- Lebhers on the Exhibition of Selected Former Russian Artists
1995 - The Artist's Magazine: "Rising Watercolor Stars" by Bebe Raupe,
October Issue pp. 60-65.
- An Art Review featuring the top winners from 10 of North America's
most prominent Watercolor Societies
1993 - The Baltimore Sun March 11: "Zolotnitskys Blend Humor and Grimness,
Go Figure" by John Dorsey. Art Review on the two-person exhibition at
Galerie Francoise, Baltimore, MD
1992 - The Columbia Flier December 17th: "Two Russians make their points at CAC"
by Mark Giuliano on a two-person exhibition at Columbia Arts Center, Washington D.C.
