"Dialogue": Step into Monacuba's Artistic World

 

Upcoming at People & Paintings Gallery | August 10–21, 2026

What happens when an artwork becomes more than an image—when it becomes a meeting point between the artist, the viewer, and the world around them?

This August, People & Paintings Gallery invites art lovers to discover Dialogue, an upcoming online exhibition that opens a space for visual encounter, interpretation, and connection. Running from August 10 to August 21, 2026, the exhibition will bring viewers closer to the artistic universe of Monacuba, the artistic name of Russian artist Elena Chulkova.

At the heart of Monacuba's practice is an ongoing fascination with the relationship between the visible world and the deeper processes unfolding within it. Her artistic statement describes her approach as “A game of Beads”, through which she seeks to capture the aesthetic dimension within the dynamic processes of life—both physical and spiritual.

An artist shaped by art from an early age

Born in Moscow, Elena grew up surrounded by art. Her parents, both well-known journalists, regularly attended exhibitions and vernissages with artists and art historians, introducing her to the artistic environment from childhood. Although her professional path did not begin immediately in art, this early exposure would eventually become an important part of her journey.

After initially studying at Moscow Technical University, Elena followed the advice of artists who recognized that she already possessed a distinctive visual language. She subsequently studied at the Faculty of Art and Graphics of the Moscow Pedagogical Institute, at a time when it was the only university in Moscow offering higher education in drawing and fine arts.

Her artistic career developed alongside an expanding exhibition practice. While still a student, she became a member of the UNESCO City Graphics Committee and participated in exhibitions in Moscow and Siberia. Her works were later shown and sold through galleries and auction houses in Moscow and entered private collections in the United States, Kazakhstan, and Norway. Today, Elena is a member of the Professional Union of Artists and is recognized for an individual style and an independent perspective on art and the world.

A visual language of symbols, colour and transformation

Monacuba's portfolio reveals a remarkably varied artistic universe. Her works move between still life, nature, symbolic imagery, figurative subjects and more imaginative compositions. Works such as Freedom, Leviathan, The Glow. The Moon Series, Dancing Lily, The Bee, The Birth of Flora, Future Treasure, My Ship and Warriors of Light suggest an artist interested in transformation, symbolism, movement and the poetic possibilities of the everyday.

Her practice also includes works engaging with cultural and historical imagery, including her “Symbols by Botticelli” series, alongside paintings inspired by mythology and literature such as The Minotaur, Jonah in the Belly of the Whale and Waiting for Godot.

Across these different subjects, however, there is a recurring desire to look beneath the surface—to discover connections between apparently separate elements and to transform fragments of experience into something aesthetically and emotionally resonant.

This makes Dialogue an especially fitting title for an exhibition dedicated to her work. The dialogue is not only between artworks. It can also emerge between past and present, reality and imagination, symbol and emotion, artist and viewer.

Discover Monacuba before the exhibition opens

With Dialogue, People & Paintings Gallery offers viewers an opportunity to enter Monacuba's artistic world and encounter the ideas, symbols and visual rhythms that have shaped her practice.

Rather than simply looking at individual paintings, viewers are invited to consider what happens when different images begin to speak to one another—and when the viewer becomes part of that conversation.

Dialogue will be presented online at People & Paintings Gallery from August 10–21, 2026.

Until then, discover more about Monacuba, explore her biography and artistic statement, and browse the works currently available in her gallery portfolio.

Discover Monacuba and her artworks

Visit the upcoming Dialogue exhibition

Join us this August and enter the dialogue.