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Ellayya Glory

Alina-Ellayya "The joy of self-expression"

Annotation by art critics of the ARTIS gallery for the first personal exhibition on 18.04.2018. - 20.04. 2018


From April 18 to April 21, the ARTIS Gallery hosted a personal exhibition of the artist, working under the pseudonym Ellayya.

Vivid, direct works of the author are written in the technique of canvas, oil and refer to impressionism. The artist turns inward, exploring the secret depths of her unconscious. In this case, it is an inexhaustible source of creativity, which materializes on the canvas with the help of paints and brushes.

Ellayya plunges into the essence of an object or event, in order to then express its depth through painting. The image caught in the stream of consciousness manifests itself in reality.

The semantic space conveyed in the works is huge. The artist reinterprets and transfers into them a lot of plots and images, trying to interpret and convey his own vision of events happening around. A kind of side view. Another metaphor describing Ellayya's works is mysticism: The golden city at night, Christmas, Sunshine, Angel, Full moon, Spirits, The island of elves ... No wonder most of the works are made in blue, which is the color of calm and psycho-emotional perception.

"The joy of self-expression" is a kind of vivid journey, in which the viewer will find familiar motives of Van Gogh, Matisse, Derain, Monet and will be surprised at the childlike spontaneity present in each work.
Ellayya Glory
The Ellayya Phenomenon. The author of the article is Elena Dunskaya 2018.

"Every artist is a phenomenon. But Ellayya's phenomenon is that a canvas, a palette knife and a brush appeared in her life six months ago. Until that moment, a girl from a Chuvash village was far from artistic life. And she received her education in a completely different specialty, and She conquered Moscow, successfully doing business. "The ancient Greeks used the word" charisma "to denote the presence of a person's power, given by the gods, capable of attracting attention. In Christianity, a charismatic person is an "anointed one," the owner of the "spark of God," the one to whom an exceptional spiritual quality has been sent down to serve for the good of people. Charisma doesn't depend on profession or circumstances. Whether it be on stage, in sports or in business, for a charismatic it is a platform for professional play, in which success is impossible without the presence of a creative core.
All of the above has a lot to do with Ellayya. And it becomes clear: they are born as an artist. But when they become - this is the secret of fate.

For our heroine, this happened in the middle of the road. The sharp turn she made is, of course, an act that requires courage and frantic aspiration. She, becoming an artist, did not embark on an unknown and very thorny path, but literally burst into a new life. Let it be small, but a personal exhibition in a gallery at Winzavod Moscow, then an exhibition in the Column Hall of the House of Unions, and then - a new turn - exhibition the ZNUI gallery Moscow.

And this is not just luck. Her works are filled with primordial power. The experience of the difficult path traveled by her, the experience of overcoming - from ups and downs to new ups - is an invaluable energy leaven for a creative person. The energy gushing from each of her works is mesmerizing.

Whether it's a flower in a vase or the bravely titled "Matisse Passion". The artist without looking back "flies" into the spaces of art seemingly mastered by his predecessors. The world she builds on her canvases bears all the traits of her personality.

What courage a chick needs to spread its wings and take off!

The flight has begun.

And its height is in front. It remains to quote the words of the exhibition's author addressed to all of us: "A brilliant artist lives in every person. The main thing is the desire to believe in this and want to get to know him." Ellayya had this acquaintance. And we are given a great opportunity to get acquainted with her work. "
Ellayya Glory

Ellayya's solo exhibition Tiger's Hour



A solo exhibition of masterpieces by Ellayya named "Tiger Hour" started on June 12 in Moscow ZNUI Art Gallery. According to the ancient Chinese horoscope not every year but even every hour has its' celestial patron. It's the Tiger hour when we watch the most colorful dreams guiding us to fantasy worlds being an interpretation of our daily life.
The worlds of Ellayya are weaved of pure archaic energy. A whirlpool of images living on canvas sends a spectator to the depths of his or her own subliminal to meet with the very own dreams, visions and fears. They act as a candid inner conversation about things endured, lost and achieved. Ellayya presenting the audience her confession made by the means of powerful eruption of energy – a visual essence of mental impressions.
Ellayya is researching issues within non-figurative abstract art where the main role is given to color and texture. Her ambitious approach to color planes along with almost monumental style of painting deliver a feeling of vibrating surfaces. Ellayya is vigorously researching and developing extremely eloquent vocabulary of art techniques.
Artist is enjoying one of the most wonderful periods of creative pursuit – discovery of her own unique art language. This work is being done within the area not of a linear but a color-based composition substantiation. A color spot takes a leading role while one graphic plane collides with or flows into another one giving birth to a dynamic groove. As the dramatic examples of this approach we should mention triptych "Golden City", pictures "Glittering Silence" and "Blue Zurbagan Falls Asleep". Artist renders a vision of twilight glowing on the surfaces of buildings, trees, road, of silhouettes emerging from the approaching darkness. Like in the eastern engravings here you may lose control over background being it an infinite blue sky either golden silhouettes serving as a pitchfork that makes the multifaceted indigo pattern sing.
A search for a rhythm and a color "unit" is unfolding as a separate stream in Ellayya's style. It works in a shape of the robust diagonals and verticals made of laconic brushstrokes in "Very Special Condition" and "A Juicy One". But at the same time one may find this very thread in neatly composed pillars in "Strange Dream". Fearlessly delving into the abyss of artistic quest Ellayya derives new ways to manifest her deep reflections and to transform her energy into the shape of visual images.
This path yields a rethinking of a color stripe method in "The USSR" and "Paradigm" endowing it with a special meaning. In "The USSR" Ellayya addresses an archetypic contradiction between a circle and a square, statics and dynamics, which brings out a new turn to author's contemplation of a lost empire.
A pinnacle of this search may be "Silver Lake" with a pattern of gloving verticals framing a spherical volume of a lake itself developing a striking contrast of a vivid translucency of water on one side and denseness of forest on the other.
Ellayya's images lead a spectator away from a real life into the domain of fantasies and dreams, reshaping time and space, immersing you into a circle of metamorphoses happening in a dream. "The Dream of Margarita" proves itself as a portal to an enigmatic world as well as a key to comprehending the artist. Picturesque vortex of black, green and indigo spirals draws a spectator into a void guarded by a figure of an angel challenging your readiness for creative collaboration.
A pattern of a closed or open-looped, rotating circle may be one of key concepts for Ellayya: a round dance of black lines in "Nobility of the Blue", rolling in a lime waterfall "Wheel of Fortune", mysterious golden glow safeguarding the serenity of "Lilacs", and at last the heart of the artist – luminous and iridescent "Nautilus".
Ellayya's language is sophisticated, multidimensional, metaphorical still amazingly clear in its' honesty and cordiality. As soon as you unleash the senses and emotions you may easily penetrate into this incredible world charged with energy pulsating from an ancient wellspring. The single requirement is to be able to turn off the mind and let the senses rule. It will let you feel vibrations intact with precious Ellayya's art planes, fall asleep in a Tiger hour and to meet yourself in a dream.
Tatiana Rodina

Tatiana Rodina
Art critic

Annotation for the third personal exhibition "Hour of the Tiger". Project curator: Elena Yureneva

How often in your life do you meet passionate people? Those who in every life situation go to the end, without fear and hesitation plunging into the abyss of the new and unknown, choosing the maximum competencies and new bright facets each time?

This is our heroine. Arriving 20 years ago in Moscow from a small Chuvash village, being quite young, in just a couple of years she climbed a business Olympus, gathered around her a team of bright and active people from all over Russia. But the road to success is never smooth. More than once, having experienced the turns of dizzying ups and downs, betrayals and pleasant discoveries, Ellayya accumulated invaluable life experience, becoming more interesting and richer spiritually with each new turn. Exploring the laws of the universe, studying spiritual practices, religions, acquiring new professions and skills almost every year (designer, stylist, personal coach, business coach, nutritionist, etc.), this undoubtedly charismatic woman introduced all knowledge and techniques and tested it on own experience, having received an incredible explosive cocktail of the search for reality.
And then there was an explosion.

t's hard to imagine that just a year ago, Ellayya got acquainted with paints, varnishes, brushes and a palette knife, usual for an artist. Research spirit and creative philosophical approach to life allowed her to immerse herself passionately in the unknown world of painting.
Lacking special skills and knowledge, art education, she boldly set off on a journey to the depths of her subconscious. Breaking up the generally accepted patterns, breaking stereotypes, Ellayya creates her new reality.

Plots and themes for paintings appeared spontaneously at first - from realistic landscapes (for example, the work "Juicy", 2018, oil on canvas, 70x100) to postmodern compositions ("Strange Dream" 2018, oil on canvas, 100x130, "Paradigm" , 2018, oil on canvas, 50x35, "Wheel of Fortune", 2018, oil on canvas, 100x50). And the oil painting technique itself is quite complicated. At first, kilograms of paint and liters of finishing varnish went away. Brushes were replaced with a palette knife, small formats of canvases gave way to large formats. During the year, Ellayya did a great job, wrote more than 100 canvases and held 4 personal exhibitions, loudly declaring herself as a unique talented artist.

Her creative method is difficult to define yet. A person of firm principles and flexible approach to life situations does not try to imitate, copy well-known works of other authors, but rather trusts not knowledge, but intuition and inspiration. Recklessly creating each new picture, she reveals to us the world of her boundless individuality.
The dark color scheme is gradually lightening, traditional genres - portrait, landscape, still life seem to her to be a stage already passed. More complex both in theme and composition of work is the result of her thoughtful and meaningful approach to her work.

Ellayya's works fit organically into the context of contemporary art and did not go unnoticed. Her sincerity, "primordial power" of talent (as Elena Dunskaya correctly noted) first convinced the gallery owners at Winzavod Moscow, who arranged a personal exhibition, and then the exhibition voyage continued in the Column Hall of the House of Unions Moscow and in the Art-Accent gallery Moscow. Many experts and viewers noted the lively energy of her canvases, as well as the ability to create "timeless art" (as contemporary artists wrote in their reviews).

Constantly experimenting, Ellayya, through trial and error, achieves her conceived, then going into design, then programmatically abandoning it. This difficult path of acquiring a new, but purely individual language, was already noticeable at the personal exhibition in the Craft gallery. The exhibition entitled "Hour of the Tiger" in the "ZNUI" gallery Moscow unveiled more than 40 works in blue colors. Passion for blue with its various shades, often heavy relief strokes, at a certain stage kept Ellayya "captive", bewitching and not letting go, opening up more and more new possibilities of working in one particular color. These are "Flickering Silence", 2018, oil on canvas, 100x50, "Blue", 2018, K., A., 50x30, "Just Cosmos", 2018, K., A., 20x30, "The Nobility of Blue", 2018, oil on canvas, 120x100.

One of the exhibitions was called "The Joy of Self-Expression" (gallery "Artis" Moscow), and this name, perhaps, most fully expresses the new emotions that the artist found while taking up painting. Starting from the unconscious, trying to preserve within herself a certain found emotion, Ellayya in her latest works more and more confidently creates her own consciously built world, for a long time achieving completeness, harmony, and semantic expressiveness.

Studying the world from the subconscious, Ellayya often turns to some mystical images. From here, the Moon and the Sun, Angels and Spirits, Elves and other creatures from the other world stink in her works ("Margarita's Dream", 2018, oil on canvas, 100x100, "Flying Dutchman", 2018, oil on canvas, 70X100 , "Reincarnation", 2018, oil on canvas, 100x80, "Heavenly and earthly firmament", 2018, oil on canvas, 45x55, "Angel", 2018, oil on canvas, 80x120, etc.)

And if a sophisticated viewer finds in her works some features of the art of the early 20th century (impressionists and symbolists), then we will attribute these coincidences to a sincere desire not to imitate, but only to interpret everything that was acquired by artists earlier.

At the 5th anniversary exhibition in the KINO gallery Moscow, dedicated to the first anniversary of the artist's path, about 40 paintings created in 2018 will be presented. Some of them were exhibited earlier, others will be presented to the viewer for the first time. We hope that exposition will reflect that dynamic striving forward to new achievements, which is so important for a young author.
In these pictures you will see the mature quintessence of the accumulated experience of a multifaceted, spiritually rich, large-scale thinking personality, from which exudes magnetism and originality. Her work is inseparable from reality and herself, representing the reality expressed by the artist in bizarre and mysterious forms.

"Who is interested in your work if you are not interesting to anyone?" - says Ellayya.

Over the past year, she has gained fans who acquire her sincere and energetically charged works for their interiors and collections.

We invite you to embark on a fascinating exploration of the depths of the subconscious of the bright and beautiful Ellayya, who has the courage to burst into the world of great art so suddenly, and, possibly, win your hearts.
Alexander Butov
About Ellayya's creativity. Article author: Alexander Butov.

Artist Ellayya painted her first picture in November, 2017. She has done more than 200 individual works since then. Ellaya ran 12 solo exhibitions and dozens of collective all-Russian and international shows from April, 2018 through March, 2020. She was a supervisor of several unique joint exhibitions. Ellayya's paintings are part of private collections in the USA, China, Israel, Singapore, Latvia. Artist spent 730 hours experimenting with monotype technique starting July, 2019. In November, 2019 she became a vice-president of Russian Union of Abstract Artists.

"Ellayya's art is an outstanding phenomenon in a modern creative world. We have witnessed supernova-like emergence of a wonderful and mature artist with a distinctive creative style!

It's like a blast transformation of creativity right into a full-size shining star when the artist's personal wholeness together with her vast and diverse experience casts into a comprehensive and universal form of art. This is why Ellayya's masterpieces are reflections of her rich inner world, synergy of insight, analysis and skill."

The birth of an artist, a creator, is like the appearance of a star that is able to flare up and ignite in the dark ocean. We do not know exactly when it lit up, in what space, and we do not represent the extent of the space work done. The fact of her birth occurs beyond the limits of our consciousness, and therefore always conceals mystery. And as soon as we see and perceive at once the light, the star itself, as something whole. And this star brings to us through millions of years and billions of kilometers the light of other, mysterious worlds. The light that was kindled by an unknown process and during, is beyond the reach of the human mind, but we see it only now.

Therefore, the star always carries for us, along with light, the beginning of mystery - it shines and disperses darkness, but the cause of light and its birth are hidden from us ... And such a mystery seems to us the birth of an artist whose work contains images, influence other worlds and dimensions, and, at the same time, close and understandable, because everyone can see familiar, but somewhat forgotten features in them. The birth of such artists, like the birth of Stars, takes place in a transitional era, when time seems to freeze in order to collect energy for a flash of light in the sphere of spirit. And - to outline, designate the transition to the era of the future ... Because before change, development there is always light, the sign of the guiding Stars. That mystical, special, unearthly and bright light with which the works of Ellayya are inwardly imbued!

Doctor of Pedagogical Sciences, Professor, Academician of the International Academy of Sciences of Higher Education, Alexander Butov.
Ellayya Glory
About Ellayya's creativity. Article author: Stanislav Aydinyan

Alina Ksenofontova, who acts in contemporary visual arts under the creative pseudonym Ellayya, has an excellent artistic taste. Her palette knife displays on the canvas a fancifully created, saturated with color, volume and created by the artist immediately and irrevocably looks very convincing, because, despite the conventionality and some fantasticality, a long-acquired and mastered sense of Beauty dominates in her works. In the purple landscape "Blue Zurbagan Falls Asleep" (2018), in the name of which there is an echo of the works of Alexander Grin, a Lighthouse is drawn, a tower that looks like a lighthouse, and next to it is the profile of the tower that looks like it - and Zurbagan becomes fictional " the capital "of yellowish beacons created by Ellayya's imagination ...

In the canvas "Hour of the Tiger" (2018) - a completely different color scale, this is the scale of the evening tone - deep green on a blue background. The features of the landscape are barely visible in abstraction - is it a tree? is this a roof? is it a staircase? is this home? .. The artist here gives us aesthetically equipped, corpus brushstroke variations on the theme - evenings. This is essentially associative coloristic image, close to the landscape ...

The work "Orthodoxy", impromptu in spirit, is also successful - there, against the background of brown and gold reflections and colorful "stacks" over the pristine blue, a barely discernible divine image, crowned with a halo, emerges from oblivion ... And then there is someone indistinct, but light, clung to his knees ... Blue and gold tones are characteristic of ancient icon painting. Their application to a chosen topic is, of course, artistically justified.

An excellent, natural sense of color gives Alina Ksenofontova - Ellayya the right to be called a master colorist. Her abstractions are created by her most often in the traditions of the 1980s, when the abstract direction was taking off in Europe and the USA, in the 21st century abstract canvases were fully established in world art. This is no longer an extreme avant-garde, but simply a definite and critically recognized way of the artist's self-expression. And Ellayya, creating abstract works, does not forget about the perspective, about the need for an aesthetic core that creates the integrity of the realized idea, without which it is impossible to create a real work of art that falls into the golden "framework" of fine art.


Stanislav Aydinyan,
art critic, deputy chairman of the Creative Union of Professional Artists for public relations, member of the Russian Academy of Art Criticism, member of the European Academy of Natural Sciences, member of the Union of Russian Writers.



About Ellayya's creativity. Article author: Maria Bogatyreva

It's been a year since artist started her pursuit to revive a graphic technique of monotype. The method was invented by Italian artist Giovanni Castiglione in XVII century. It was fairly popular in Soviet Union in 1960-s, but rendered to oblivion later for several decades thought rarely retrieved by some artists for experimental studies.

Ellayya started her relations with monotype as a trial as well. It then evolved into a full-blown creative exploration of a way to express artistic vision and to solve existential problems by the means of this technique.

Monotype method is characterized by uniqueness, swift performance and liveliness resulted in single copy prints as the technique itself eliminates a chance to leave "a trace of color" for the second time.

Ellayya devoted this year's artistic quest to the matter of eventfulness in time and space. May they be really incidental – the trace of color, the rhythm of patterns and the dynamics of tints that we see in artists' monotypes? Ellayya suggests a relationship of immanent change of existence with the flow of her graphics. Onesecond later paint touches a paper – and it fails to reflect that moment of time left behind like any other moment of our life. Influence of words, actions, gestures or sounds inevitably changes with passing of a moment they happened. And possibly the moment when beholder satiates with artist's visual images would have a different meaning in his or her life should it happen a minute later or earlier.

We invite you to have a first handexperience in creative research, to become collaborators comprehending your feelings evoked with artist's works.

Maria Bogatyreva,
art critic, art dealer