Yelena Popova (born in USSR) lives and works in Nottingham, where she has a studio at Primary. She studied at Moscow Art Theatre School (MHAT) before graduating from MA Painting at the Royal College of Art in 2011. Recent solo exhibitions include This Certifies That, Philipp von Rosen, Cologne (2017), Elements, Girton College, University of Cambridge (2017), After Image, Nottingham Contemporary (2016) and Unsensed, Hatton Gallery, Newcastle (2015). Her work has been acquired into the Arts Council Collection, RCA Collection, Saatchi Collection, Zabludowicz Collection and LWL Museum, Münster.
Popova works with a broad variety of medium, which includes painting, video and installation. Her work often reflects her upbringing in the Ural, and is also influenced by Russian Constructivism, trying to capture the continuous industrial development and the landscape of contemporary capitalism. Her work initiates discussions and engagement with the audience regarding the systematic relationship between objects found in cultures of industrialism and capitalism, which simultaneously produces a powerful contrast and a sense of equilibrium.
Review of Popova’s exhibition in Art Monthly, 2020
The Scholar Stones Project exhibition Review. Cotton on MCR
The Gurdian, Get the Geiger counter! The Scholar Stones Project – review, 2020
London Art Exhibitions For January 2018 By Paul Carey-Kent, Artlyst, 2018
A Q&A with… Yelena Popova, artist, A-N, 2016
Anoma Wijewardene in Silk Road group exhibition, The Sunday Times, 2016
Review: Yelena Popova ‘Drying Time’ at Paradise Row, Apollo, 2014
What Does the Future of Painting Look Like?, ArtNetNews, 2014
Germany’s Top 25 Fall Gallery Shows, ArtNetNews, 2014
LeftLion Magazine #55, LeftLion, 2013
Russian Art is Hot, says The Saatchi, Huffpost, 2013
Yelena Popova for Saatchi Gallery, Crane.tv, 2012
Contemporary art talent – chosen so you don’t have to…, Yelena Popova, ArtBroth, 2012
London’s top five art exhibitions to visit, The Guardian, 2012
AN INTERVIEW WITH YELENA POPOVA, The Serendipity Project, 2012
Saatchi Gallery and Channel 4 New Sensations Prize, Wallpaper*, 2011
Britart’s new wave: Who are the successors to Hirst and Emin?, The INDEPENDENT, 2011
The Scholar Stones Project, Curator: Zoe Watson Holden Gallery, Manchester School of Art, UK, 2020