M.A.R.
Manifest Artist Residency
2016/2017
Ellina Chetverikova
Ellina Chetverikova is a local artist from Ukraine currently residing in Cincinnati, Ohio. She was born in Severodonetsk in 1989. Completed her BFA at the Art Academy of Cincinnati, and MFA at Rochester Institute of Technology. She worked as an adjunct Professor at the Art Academy of Cincinnati in 2014-2016, and recently as a hand-painter at Rookwood Company.
Artist's Statement:
My work is based on autobiographical happenings which I sum up and express through my work. Working with a variety of mediums, depending on the story, I embody the transcendence of personal experience in the work as a personal visual diary. The latest work is a reflection of the world as a foreigner that is suspended in between two cultures but does not completely belong to either. I like to use metaphor in my work, as it helps to translate many experiences to people that have never traveled anywhere, never learned a foreign language, etc
I make work to connect with people, I make work so I can see better and appreciate world better.
"There is another kind of Language, another form of communication: by means of feelings, and images. That is the contact that stops people being separated from each other, that brings down barriers. Will, feeling, emotion, these remote obstacles from between people who otherwise stand on opposite sides of a mirror, on opposite sides of a door...The frames of the screen move out and the world which used to be partitioned off comes into us, becomes something real..."
— Andei Tarkovsky
By doing art I open the channels and possibilities that I don't see or feel without art. It has been the speaking language for me all along. Moving to a country where I couldn't rely on English in order to communicate really proved that. I love working from life. It feeds my world as reading books feeds a writer's world. I have noticed that when I stop working from life I am gradually depleting. Work from life inspires and animates me.
This page will serve as Manifest's MAR document for Ellina Chetverikova's Residency. We will occasionally update it with news, studio pictures, and works made while at Manifest. The images pictured at right are a sampling of those submitted with her application.
See more and learn about Ellina's work here:
www.ellinart.com
Information on how to apply for future MAR awards can be found here.
