Elena Zelenina
New York, NY
An ardent arts advocate, a world-class coach, and a teacher with 30 years of experience, who exhibited and lectured internationally.
Message
Elena Zelenina is an ardent arts advocate, a successful world-class coach for creatives, and a gifted teacher whose career spans several decades and the United States, Russia, and India. Zelenina is a member of the National Association of Women Artists (NAWA), where she serves as Project Manager for NAWA Educational Projects and is a recipient of NAWA’s Mixed Media Award. Her work has been exhibited in galleries and art fairs, and is held in private collections internationally.
Her public speaking topics include the arts in education, parenting, and empowerment through creativity and the Science of Completion. She is a certified Vedic Art instructor and completion and meditation coach and holds a Master’s Degree from Moscow State Pedagogical University.
Her artistic style blends years of Vedic spiritual exploration with the influence of a childhood surrounded by traditional Russian artists. She channels enlightenment breakthroughs into mixed-media works, dreamy surrealist portraits, and landscapes rich with layered meaning. Each piece contains carefully placed “hidden gems” that invite more profound discovery and reward sustained engagement.
For Elena, nothing is merely as it appears; art is a vehicle for transformation. Her goal is to enrich the lives of others so that everyone feels empowered to explore their creative being and experience joy.
Zelenina's mixed-media work transforms fragments, broken ceramics, glass, found objects, and handmade paper into textured narratives of resilience, transformation, and inner freedom. Drawing on decades of cross-cultural experience in the United States, Russia, and India, her art explores the moment where fragility meets strength.
Her recent series, including Shattered Moments Gathering, Walk Away, and Glass World, merges sculptural surfaces with layered symbolism, inviting viewers to uncover hidden meanings beneath the shimmer of light and texture. Each work is deeply rooted in personal story yet resonates universally, offering a meditation on renewal and the triumph of spirit over matter.
Statement
"I feel a sense of responsibility for how people perceive my art. I feel as an artist, it's my duty to ensure that with every piece, a person feels a sort of goodness and curiosity inside. I want to evoke peace with each piece since that's how I feel when I paint them." - Elena Zelenina