Тhe pictures and the world of sculptures of Elena Figurina are inhabited by people that, through the artist herself, are in some spiritual and physical relation with eachother. Watching the people meeting in the garden, playing chess, having meal one has the impression that Figurina is depicting a small people that inhabits some settled place... Figurina’s family nation is a collective metaphorical self portrait of St Petersburg expressionism which has always been aware of the necessary asceticism which enables the encounter with art in all its richness of colour, that has always considered painting to be its sacred cow or even the cow in the fairy tale whose bone sand hide are being constantly harvested in expectation of the time when it will rise again whole to eternal life.
Ekaterina Andreeva, exhibition curator