Elayne is a multidisciplinary artist and designer, deeply inspired by music, words, photography and the written word. She weaves between the mediums, utilizing magic realism and a distinct visual style to bring intangible, fantastical feelings and realms to life.
Her early formative experiences with art and writing were a mix of rich Eastern European, Middle Eastern and Central Asian folklore, superstitions and mythology, juxtaposed by omnipresent, cold, stark soviet constructivism and utopian communist sci-fi.
A transcontinental refugee from Ukraine who grew up frequently on the move, her art practice is deeply ingrained with the preternatural experience of a “third-culture kid”, being of multiple cultures yet belonging to none of them.
As such, her art counterpoises delicate magical realism with an armor of heavily-contrasted silhouettes and deep shadows. Thick lines enclose and protect the fragility of each fanciful dreamlike scene within. Thus fortified, her practice explores inner worlds where personal history, childhood fantasies, cultural memory and myth collide.
As a collaborator working on commissions for musicians and poets, she engages deeply with the intent and rhythm of each work and the people behind it, to illuminate and adorn the unspoken.
She lives and works in New York City.