Elya Yalonetski studied at the traditional Vasnetzov Art School in Abramtsevo, from which she graduated in 1996. She lived in Israel and Moscow before moving to Berlin.

Elya Yalonetski (1973)

Her works make the viewer think involuntarily of the works of the great Marc Chagall - after all, they are reminiscent of the world of motifs of the magician from Vitebsk. Yalonetski devotes herself to fairy tales and mythical figures, angels and, time and again, the motif of lovers. Like Chagall, she draws on the imagery of the Eastern Jewish tradition and Orthodox iconography at the same time. This connection, the artist explains, stems from childhood experiences in a notoriously anti-Semitic small Ukrainian town, where she found refuge from the desolation of everyday life in an Orthodox church.

The baroque splendor of the church interior, the vividness and expressiveness of the sculptures waiting for her there, and the mystery of icon painting deeply captivated her and became influential in shaping her own artistic imagery. Elements of all this can easily be found in her own works.

For example, in the faces of her figures: here, as is also customary in iconography, she has developed a fixed canon of recurring facial expressions, whereby the combination of oversized-looking eyes with a clearly accentuated angular nose is itself a hallmark of Orthodox iconography.

Yalonetski's sculptures, with their facial features radiating meditative serenity, are at once of extraordinary emotionality and great poetry. The artist wants to "touch", wants a dialogue between artwork and viewer that is not limited to rational and yet always incomplete "comprehension". This is not least what gives her figures an impressive lightness.

Genres Figurative
Styles Contemporary Art