Yelizaveta Masalimova: Woven Top, 2019, glazed English porcelain, 16" x 14" x 8"

Courtesy of Orchard Art Collective Gallery

About:

I am interested in the notion that what is deemed valuable requires a measure of labor and pain to achieve its worth. Throughout my work I explore how something considered beautiful can quietly tolerate an underlying violence or turmoil. Pain, suffering, and exploitation seem intrinsically tied with valuable objects. Is pain or sacrifice necessary for the attainment of beauty? My artwork is a visual investigation into this question. My sculptures explore this human condition by juxtaposing realistic and surrealistic elements within the human figure. These distortions aim to promote a dialogue about the body symbolically and physically.

Clay is ideal for my practice and allows me to make complex changes and experiment with repetitive forms created through molds. This type of transformation through labor is integral to my work's conceptual and formal qualities. I feel it is important to exemplify both the physical and intellectual labor that goes into creating art. I celebrate the craft and labor that goes into an artwork as part of the sacrifice that gives it value.

Bio:

Yelizaveta Masalimova was born in 1986 and immigrated to Connecticut from Kiev, Ukraine with her family in 1991. For her bachelor studies, she attended Lyme Academy College of Fine Art in Old Lyme, Connecticut, where she earned a BFA in Sculpture, and was the sole recipient of the Adams Academic Four-Year Grant. Yelizaveta received her M.F.A. from the University of Connecticut in May 2012, where she received a Full Tuition Waiver Grant, a Graduate Teaching Assistantship, and a Graduate Research Travel Grant. From 2014-2015, Yelizaveta studied sculpture and ceramics as a Post Graduate Resident Artist at The Pennsylvania State University.

Yelizaveta's work has been exhibited throughout the US, most notably at the William Benton Museum of Art (CT), the Delaware Contemporary Art Museum, and SoHo20 Chelsea Gallery, NY. She had her first international Solo Exhibition at Schiller International University in Madrid, Spain. She has competed in the National Sculpture Society Figure and Portrait Modelling Competitions in 2013, 2015, and 2016. Yelizaveta currently teaches ceramics at Temple University's Tyler School of Art & Architecture in Philadelphia. She currently resides in Philadelphia, PA.

www.LizaStudio.com