About me
The Path
Elena Filatov was born in 1968 in Astana, Kazakhstan, the first child in a multicultural family.
To understand Elena’s artistic path, it is necessary to take a journey through time. Her grandmothers became her greatest role models thanks to their influence and close relationship with Elena. As Elena spent most of her childhood with them, her life and view of the world were shaped by these strong personalities.
Her paternal ancestors were Tatars, and the Begishev and Koshegulov families are the most important cultural patrons of today’s capital of Kazakhstan. Among other things, a street was named after the Koshegulov family. Elena and other members of the family are mentioned in several historical books about Kazakhstan and Astana. Information can also be found on Wikipedia. Some of the buildings built by the families are still standing today. Under Stalin, the families were expropriated and driven from their own homes. As a result, the family became impoverished and suffered hardship and hunger. Elena Filatov’s father, Robert Begishev, who was also very talented in the arts, was born at that time.
Elena’s maternal Russian ancestors were also expropriated and expelled from the Volga region. They and their young children were then abandoned in the Kazakh steppes as part of a punitive forced resettlement.
Two siblings of Elena Filatov’s mother did not survive that ordeal. Two other siblings, including Elena’s mother Klaudia, survived
Nature is female
The tragic family history and the strength of Elena’s two grandmothers, who ensured the family’s survival, have shaped Elena Filatov’s artistic development. Feminine and sensual strength is a recurrent theme in Elena’s works.
Elena’s parents Klaudia and Robert worked hard to provide their three children with a solid education, both culturally and academically. Elena began piano learn lessons with a private teacher at the age of 5. At the age of 17, this music-loving young woman obtained a state diploma in music. At the same time, she graduated from the municipal intermediate art school. After secondary school, Elena studied art and design in Omsk and in Moscow, graduating with a diploma from the State University of Design and Technology in 1989.
During her studies, she exhibited practical art works in various museums on the Golden Ring in Moscow and in St Petersburg. Her student projects were awarded art and design prizes at several exhibitions.
After graduating from university, Elena moved to Khabarovsk in the Far East of Russia for family reasons. There she worked as an artist, painting miniatures for the Japanese market, while also training as a digital designer on Apple Macintosh computers at a fashion design institute. She then worked as a graphic designer in the printing industry. Her work as a designer took her to the USA, particularly Portland, New York and Chicago.
In 1994 she moved to Germany with her son, who was born in 1988, and worked as a marketing assistant in the Russian export department of a large industrial manufacturer.
Since 1999, Elena Filatov has worked as a freelance designer and graphic artist for several prefabricated house manufacturers, and as a designer for exhibitions and trade fair construction. Around the same time she also returned to painting, producing works in oil and acrylic.
The power of my femininity
Since 2003, Elena has been exhibiting her work at Galerie Best in Bad Oeynhausen, where she lived at the time.
After her first small exhibition, her work immediately attracted the interest of many other galleries in North Rhine-Westphalia and the PGM Kunstverlag in Munich. Since 2005, paintings by Elena Filatov have been available from PGM Kunstverlag as prints, giclees and postcards throughout Europe and the world.
In the beginning, it was her very simple flower paintings that appealed to buyers, precisely because of their simplicity. Some prints, such as “Poppy in Milk”, sold up to 5,000 copies a month. As a result, galleries throughout Germany and from abroad have shown interest in Elena’s paintings. Since 2006, Elena has been working closely with many galleries in Germany. She has developed a long and stable collaboration with the Walentowski Galleries and the Timeless Gallery in Amstelveen (Amsterdam).
Her current works mainly show women, whom she portrays as powerful and sensual beings. These women reflect Elena herself and all her female ancestors, some of whom experienced great hardship but refused to be broken. Animal paintings are another important motif. Elena particularly enjoys painting horses, which her family has bred and kept. These animals are depicted equally powerful and with strong, sensual expressions.
Elena has expanded the scope of her original work. More exhibitions will follow.
Elena Filatov has been living and working in Germany since 1994 and complements her artistic work with applied graphic design. In 2008 and 2009, the company Christinen Brunnen commissioned her to design a collection of water glasses with the phrase “Every drop is a kiss”, and Elena collaborated with the company on an advertising campaign.
To this day, Elena continues to develop various collector’s editions for the company Phytobiotics, including a series of animal motifs on beer glasses with phrases such as “Cow are you doing?”. Another series consists of porcelain cups with various motifs and a range of textile items.
In 2011, Wiesbadener Volksbank commissioned Elena to decorate their newly opened branch in Eltville am Rhein with abstract landscape paintings.
After 2014, Elena Filatov took a creative break for private reasons.
She has been working again since 2022 and is preparing her comeback with an exhibition of new work, to open in September 2023.
This will be followed by further exhibitions of her powerful, feminine paintings. In her current works, which radiate a deeper sense and meaning in a unique way, Elena shows a whole new side of herself.
Short info
Permanent exhibitions in the Walentowski Galleries in Berlin, Dresden, Hamburg, the Timeless Gallerie Amstelveen and the Galerie Kunstkontor in Wiesbaden
