BIO

Elena Bulycheva is a contemporary painter who is best known for her abstract paintings, marked by an interplay of vivid color, texture, form, and irregularly shaped and sculptural canvases. Her surface can be identified by the characteristic cracks and crevices of paint from which the picture emerges, revealing the underlying color or surface, hinting at notions of negative space, iconoclasm, conservational issues, and a quip reference to the craquelé of old master painting. In her painterly process, Bulycheva transforms a smooth surface into a unique pattern of erosion, referring to the test of time but, most importantly, inspecting the fragility of her medium and approaching. She approaches the canvas radically as a locus of social contexts and gendered values, implementing unconventional processes derived from female labor, such as notoriously using a mashing machine to disrupt the paint. Yet, as female labor, this development is not linear but cyclical, which functions as a constant metaphor in her work, conceptually but also formally.

Born in 1987 in Kaluga, Russia, residing and working in Hamburg, Germany, Elena Bulycheva holds an MFA in Fine Arts from the Hochschule für Bildende Künste (2017-2024) in Hamburg, Germany, graduating magna cum laude under the supervision of renowned artist Anselm Reyle, previously having studied at the University of Arts (2007) in London, the United Kingdom; the British Higher School of Art and Design (2009-2011) in Moscow, Russia; followed by a BA in Video Art at the Rodchenko Moscow School of Photography and Multimedia (2013-2017) in Moscow, Russia. The artist has exhibited at various national and international venues, encompassing Gallery Barlach Halle K in Hamburg, Germany; the Moscow Multimedia Art Museum in Moscow, Russia; X-Pon Art Gallery in Hamburg, Germany; CCA Fabrica in Moscow, Russia; and has participated in the Oxford International Art Fair in Oxford, the United Kingdom; and the 6th Ural Industrial Biennale of Contemporary Art in Ekaterinburg, Russia.

In 2023, Elena Bulycheva founded 146 Contemporary—a non-profit organization and exhibition platform inviting renowned curators and aiming to support emerging artists in Hamburg—as a curatorial extension of her artistic practice. By doing so, the artist is once more revisiting the domestic and the public, the everyday and the artistic, by practicing and bringing art and the public into a domestic environment.

EDUCATION

2017-2024: HFBK Hamburg, MA in Fine Art (prof. Anselm Reyle), Hamburg, DE
2013-2017: Rodchenko Moscow School of Photography and Multimedia, BA in Video Art, Moscow, RU
2009-2011: British Higher School of Art and Design, Moscow, RU
2007: University of Arts, London, UK

EXHIBITIONS

2024, HFBK Graduation show (group exhibition), University of Fine Arts, Hamburg, DE
Galerie 1965 (group exhibition), Hamburg, DE
THE SPACE (group exhibition), Hamburg, DE
Painting Unlimited (group exhibition), 146 Contemporary, Hamburg, DE
Annual HFBK Show (group exhibition), University of Fine Arts, Hamburg, DE
Fight & Care (group exhibition), 146 Contemporary, Hamburg, DE
2023, Annual HFBK Show (group exhibition), University of Fine Arts, Hamburg, DE
2022, New Washed Art (solo exhibition), Gallery Barlach Halle K, Hamburg, DE
Annual HFBK Show (group exhibition), University of Fine Arts, Hamburg, DE
2021, Laundry Room (solo exhibition), Hamburg, DE
6th Ural Industrial Biennale of Contemporary Art (group exhibition), Ekaterinburg, RU
Annual HFBK Show (group exhibition), University of Fine Arts, Hamburg, DE
2017, Große Wäsche Project (solo exhibition), Moscow Multimedia Art Museum, Moscow, RU
8 Level (group exhibition), Center of Contemporary Art Winzavod, Moscow, RU
2016, Übermacht (group exhibition), Xpon-Art Galerie, Hamburg, DE
2015, ArtHotel (group exhibition), Hamburg, DE
2015, Big Wash (solo exhibition), Rodchenko Multimedia Art School, Moscow, RU
2014, Oxford International Art Fair (group exhibition), Oxford, UK
2013, CCA Fabrica (group exhibition), Multispace, Moscow, RU

GRANTS, STIPENDS & AWARDS

2019, Deutschlandstipendien, DE
2016, Deutsche-Russisches Kino-Festival KINOFAHEN (winner), Hamburg, DE

PUBLICATIONS & INTERVIEWS

“Fight & Care: Elena Bulycheva & Zixu Wang” in Contemporary Art Issue (2024)
“Elena Bulycheva macht kunst mit der Waschmachine” (Interview) in NDR Kultur (2020)
“Die Kunst von Elena Bulycheva hat sich gewaschen” (Interview) in Hamburger Abend blatt (2020)
“New Washed Art” (Interview) in Hamburg Woman (2020)
“Ubi Bene, Ibi Patria” (Documentary film) in Woman’s Immigration (2018)