Elina Kohanaya (Tkachenko)
Her practice explores the subtle connections between human perception and the natural world. Working primarily with watercolor, she develops a distinctive figurative language in which plants, animals and imagined beings become carriers of emotion, memory and symbolic meaning.
Her works draw on magical realism to examine wonder as a way of seeing — a state in which ordinary encounters can reveal hidden relationships and inner narratives. Rather than illustrating fictional stories, Kohanaya constructs visual worlds in which nature becomes animated, conscious and emotionally resonant.
Her artistic language combines meticulous observation of natural forms with imaginative transformation, creating intimate scenes that exist between the recognizable and the imagined.
Education:
2022 - Art Therapist, Art Therapy Center, Burganov Academy of Arts, Moscow, Russia
2010-2012 — Psychology, Donetsk Branch of the Kyiv Institute, Ukraine; postgraduate education
2010 - Coach, Training at Mykola Latansky's School of Coaching, Kyiv, Ukraine
1998-2003 — Medical University of Maxim Gorkii, Donetsk, Ukraine
Group Exhibitions:
2026 - Uluslararası Karma Sergi, International Association of Plastic Arts (UPSD)
Gallery, Istanbul, Türkiye
2026 - Unadorned, Meta-senses Gallery, Ukraine, online
2025 — Dreams in Pera Palace, Pera Palace, Istanbul, Türkiye
2025 — Temporarily Here, Meta-senses Gallery, Ukraine, online
2024 — Vogue Seventh Edition, Boomer Gallery, London, UK
2022 Moscow in Flowers, Museum Sadovoe Koltso, Moscow, Russia
2022 — Countryside Romance, Moscow, Russia
2022 — Art Into the Home, Association Exhibition Halls of Moscow, Moscow, Russia
2018 — Portraits of Rats, collaboration with photographer Olga Smirnova, Loft Project Floors, St. Petersburg, Russia
2016 — Border Spaces, ARTPLAY, Moscow, Russia
2008 — Chin de Pilot, gallery on Kuznetsky Most, Moscow, Russia
Personal Exhibitions:
2010 — Magical Characters of Elina Kohanaya, Circular Kinopanorama, as part of the First Moscow International Film Festival for Children and Teenagers KOT, Moscow, Russia
Publications:
2025 — Art Agent Magazine, "In the Studio and in the Open Air", No. 19
2025 — Art Agent Magazine, "Techniques and Technologies", No. 22
2021 - Enot, children's magazine
2018 — Recipes for Restorative Meals after Childbirth, "Let's Feed Mom" project
Catalogs:
“Unadorned”– catalog of exhibition, 2026
“Temporarily here” – catalog of exhibition, 2025
Vogue seventh edition – catalog of exhibition, 2024
“Border Spaces” – catalog of exhibition, 2016
Teaching Experience:
2024 — Present Art instructor and fonder of online and offline youth art programs, including "Drawing Without Borders" studio, Istanbul; student works selected for the International Istanbul Children and Youth Art Biennial (Müze Gazhane, Istanbul, Türkiye,
2026)
2016 — New Year's card-making workshop, kindergartens, Moscow, Russia
2014 - 2015 — Sand painting teacher, "Scientist Cat" children's center chain, Moscow,
Russia
Selected Performance Storytelling
(Author's Tales & Live Music):
2019 — "Fairy Tales Festival", Central Open-Air Stage, Sokolniki Park, Moscow, Russia — Author's storytelling performance "Kitten Named Foxy Learns to Play"
2016 — "Border Spaces", ARTPLAY, Moscow, Russia
2015 — "Kids Time Festival", Krasny Oktyabr, Moscow, Russia — Musical fairy-tale performance "Masha, Vovka and the Snow Cat"
2010 — Performance at the opening of the CAT Festival, First Moscow International Film Festival for Children and Teenagers, "Kinopanorama" Circular Cinema, Moscow, Russia
Courses/Trainings:
2021 — Painting courses with Maria Kostrina, New Tretyakov Gallery, Moscow, Russia
2021 - 2022 — Colored pencil courses with Anna Egida