https://www.rwdfoundation.org/current-rubys-grantees
Let The Right One In is a group exhibition featuring painting, sculpture, and photography by seven artists currently living and working in Baltimore. In times of increasing transience and alienation, it matters who we count upon to uphold these borders of familiarity and trust. The seven artists in the show have been connected to the gallery by people who have been involved with the arts community in Baltimore for years or decades.
The exhibited works focus on the figure: abstracted body parts constructed from yoga mats; anthropomorphic paintings of trees and flowers that allude to human sexuality; densely detailed paintings of African deities; depictions of spirit animals; surrealist self portraits and romantic portraits of loved ones; tintypes using 19th century photographic technology to capture the likeness of city residents; and a photorealistic painting of a local barbershop that incorporates found objects, sound, and lighting elements that relate to the cultural activity in that space.
Collectively, the works thematize the tension between the familiar and the uncanny, external presentation and internal condition.
BOPA ANNOUNCES THE WINNERS OF THE MASB ARTIST TRAVEL PRIZE
The Baltimore Office of Promotion & The Arts (BOPA) and the Municipal Art Society of Baltimore City (MASB) announce Elena Volkova and Jackie Milad as the recipients of the 2022 Municipal Art Society of Baltimore City Artist Travel Prize. These two artists will receive $6,000 each to help fund travel essential to their studio practice. The prize winners are determined by the MASB board of directors, who received 35 proposals this year.
Volkova’s travel project, “Ukrainian Portraits” is a community arts project aiming to create an archive of portraits using a historic photographic process to bear witness to the Ukrainian people affected by war. Her goal is to engage the community in the creation of artifacts and facilitate an artistic experience which focuses on empowerment and healing.
Anacostia Portraits is a participatory arts project using a historic photographic process to create a visual archive celebrating the people who make up the Anacostia region of the District of Columbia. In this revival of the 19th century tintype, individuals with a connection to the community were invited to portrait sessions with photographer Elena Volkova at the Anacostia Arts Center. Each sitting produces two portraits, one for the participant and one for a final installation.
Volkova sees Anacostia Portraits as a way for people to shape their own representations, and to encourage a dialogue between past and present. The tintype, or wet plate collodion, process makes exposures on metal plates coated with wet silver nitrate. Like a Polaroid, each exposure produces a single image. However, a single tintype takes about 15 minutes to create. Volkova uses the forced slowness to collaborate with participants, learning enough about each person to reveal their internal stories in a final portrait.
Subjects come with a diverse range of connections to Anacostia: life-long residents, people who grew up and moved away, and newcomers making art or building businesses in the region. Their lives touch on different parts of the varied and changing landscape of Anacostia, which began as a Native American settlement, grew into a center for DC’s African-American community, and now grapples with the push and pull of gentrification.
Honfleur Gallery will host a final installation of portraits produced through Volkova's project from May 6 through June 18, 2022. Nearly 100 original photographic plates will be on display, along with digital enlargements
Liminal Space 2020
Meanwhile is a photographic series by Elena Volkova that explores the concept of becoming. The images are observations of moments in constant flux, which poetically document what it means to live through the time of the pandemic and to be compelled to get to know one’s place in a deep introspective way. Through the lens of subjectivity, the artist offers glimpses of domestic environments juxtaposed with natural forms, inviting an escapist journey amidst the chaos.
Picturing Pandemic, Baltimore
Pandemics are, by definition, global phenomena, but they are lived locally.
In association with a special issue on COVID-19, the Bulletin of the History of Medicine and the Program in Arts, Humanities, & Health at the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine have sponsored this exhibition documenting Baltimore’s experiences of the epidemic. The city is home to many fine photographers, and they offer us compelling visions of what lived experience has been like over the past several months. After an open call for submissions put out by co-curators Mary Fissell and Loren Ludwig, the distinguished Baltimore photojournalist J. M. Giordano served as juror to select the photographs included here.
BmoreArt - The Illusion of Free Time: Visual Diary by Elena Volkova
The Illusion of Free Time: Visual Diary
by Elena Volkova
Observing light and reflecting on the domestic experience
published on September 4, 2020
On the Front Lines: Photography and Protest
As a teacher, I see every student in my class, and I try as much as I can to be tuned in to the experiences of minority students, racial and otherwise. As an educator, I see my role as a leader and a role model, and inspire students to stand up for justice. Because we were out of the classroom for so long, it was important for me to express where I stand and reflect on my white privilege publicly.