Artist Focus: Elena Zolotnitsky

In an ongoing show at Sticks Framing and Fine Art in Berkely, California, Elena Zolotnitsky continues to explore three seemingly different genres, which on the surface appear to be florals, portraits and chairs.

Elena Zolotnitsky, A Date With Klimt, oil on panel, 15 x 15 in.

Elaborating on her painting A Date With Klimt, part of her Extinct series, Zolotnitsky says, “The ‘chairs’ (which are not chairs) I paint are ‘characters,’ people who you could imagine sitting in those chairs. Like their owners, they have certain features, vibrations or auras. They all come from my imagination. The only ‘character’ from my series inspired by a real chair so far is A Date With Klimt. I was so taken by Koloman Moser’s original design for Klimt’s solo exhibition at the 1903 Vienna Secession (now on display at Leopold Museum), that I had to paint my interpretation of it right away.”

Elena Zolotnitsky, Moonstruck, oil on paper panel, 30 x 30 in.

In her Valentines Series, Zolotnitsky paints florals which, she says, are not florals. “I am telling tales of the relationships, exploring certain harmonies, palettes and paint applications in the repetitive ‘bouquet’ motif, driven solely by the imaginary situations or emotional developments between lovers. Hence the names like Pink Perfect, Lost In Translation, Love Shimmers, Moonstruck, etcetera.”

Her solo show, titled Ode to Joy,is a curated collection of nine paintings. Like a lyrical poem, they are an ode “to inspiration, color, feeling, knowledge, maturity and playfulness, and to love and all things beautiful...”