Biography

Elena Elagina

Elena Elagina was born in 1949 in Moscow. Her father, Vladimir Dmitrievich Elagin, was a children’s author and promoter of the ideas of prominent Soviet scientists such as Olga Lepeshinskaya and Trofim Lysenko. This had a particular influence on Elena’s own work, giving it a sarcastic inclination. After graduating from the Moscow Secondary Art School in 1967, until 1972 she studied painting with Alisa Poret and at around the same time (1964–1976) worked in Ernst Neizvestny’s studio. 

From 1979 she was a member of Collective Actions and from 1987 of the Avant-gardists’ Club (KLAVA). In 2000 she became the co-founder and chair of the Art Projects Foundation. In 2011 she co-founded the Caryatid Prize (Nizhny Novgorod).

From 1990 she worked together with her husband, Igor Makarevich, and together they had more than 50 solo exhibitions, including at the State Tretyakov Gallery (Moscow) and the Kunsthistorisches Museum (Vienna). In 2009 she took part in the main project of the 53rd Venice Biennale and in 2011 in the exhibition Empty Zones: Andrei Monastryski and Collective Actions in the Russian Pavilion at the 54th Venice Biennale. 

She was awarded the Innovation Prize for “Creative Contribution to the Development of Contemporary Art” (2012) and the Moscow Prize for “Visual Art and Architecture” (2021).

Elagina’s works can be found in the State Tretyakov Gallery (Moscow), the State Russian Museum (St Petersburg), Tate Modern (London), the Ludwig Museum (Cologne) and other collections.