Elena Gileva

September 9 - November 2, 2017

Elena Gileva - Matt Pebble. Turquoise Pebble. Red Pebble, Drippy Pebble 2016

Elena Gileva began her artistic education in Saint Petersburg. After two years studying classical sculpture, Gileva moved to Paris in 2009, where she obtained a BFA at the Parsons Paris School of Art and Design, studying with ceramic artist Kristin McKirdy.
Her residency in Japan at the Shigaraki Ceramic Sculpture Park in 2015 marked a turning point in her apprenticeship, as she decided to concentrate fully on ceramics. In 2016, she completed her Master's degree at the Royal College of Art in London, where she presented a highly acclaimed installation of her "Woven Pebbles". Gileva is now pursuing her work as a ceramic sculptor, regenerating the material's traditional practices: with her, the clay dove is no longer the building block of a container, but the open expression of an elaborate construction.
Prior to her exhibition at Galerie de l'Ancienne Poste, she will be exhibiting at the International Ceramics Biennial in Icheon, South Korea. She will also be exhibiting this summer at the Florence Trust Gallery in London, where she has been selected as one of the artists in residence.
The exhibition at the Galerie de l'Ancienne Poste is his first in France, and will bring together some twenty works produced between 2015 and 2017 and presented in the catalog published for the occasion.

Elena Gileva Exhibition catalogue
Elena Gileva, a new talent in the revue de la céramique et du verre
Elena Gileva new talent in Connaissance des Arts
Elena Gileva in THE EYE

All my work reflects a fascination with the history and culture contained in objects. Studying and observing the formal aspect of art objects and discovering their meaning and history drives me to create their contemporary rendering. I'm interested in material culture, its expression and interpretation; decoration and surface form the main basis on which I convey a concept. Abandoning current minimalist, modern/postmodern and purely conceptual trends, I take the ORNEMENTAL as subject and symbol of the old and the new, of the helical movement of History. The object is a powerful and crucial instrument for communicating ideas. The narratives created through relics are a foundation of our collective consciousness, but in today's world, the focus of these narratives has been altered by the misappropriation of historical objects. Like a "collector" of surfaces, ideas and forms, I seek to assemble an alternative universe.