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 — NFS Digital Art Biennale, Amsterdam, Netherlands, digital animation
2026 — Wings, Birds and Flight, No. 35 Gallery, London, UK, international online group exhibition
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
Selected Art Projects
2022–2023 — "Grass by the House That No Longer Exists" is independent long-term drawing project created in response to the war in Ukraine. 135 botanical drawings in colored pencil, 12 × 12 cm, created from 7 May 2022 to 23 April 2023
Book & Visual Aart Projects
2026 — Following the Leaves (Вслед за листьями) — collaborative authorial haiku collection by seven authors. Visual concept, 43 original illustrations and cover artwork by Elina Kohanaya. ISBN 978-5-6056954-1-7
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:
"Wings, Birds and Flight" – No. 35 Gallery, London
“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