IONE & MANN is pleased to present Of Dust and Breath, a solo exhibition by Nottingham-based artist Yelena Popova (b. 1978, USSR).

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The paintings in this exhibition form part of an ongoing series of works Popova calls Post-Petrochemical paintings. Rooted in her ecological and spiritual interests, this series rejects any art materials made with products of the petrochemical industry. Eschewing traditional paints, she turns to the land to make her own pigments from soil and natural materials, a process she developed in 2016 during a year-long residency at Girton College at the University of Cambridge. Popova approaches the ritual of interacting with the earth to create pigments with a sense of reverence and awe. She describes it as an act of reappropriation of ancient material which perhaps connects the resulting work to history grounding it into deep time.

The pigments used to create the paintings in this show come from soil and clay Popova collected in Dumfries, Scotland, near the mouth of the River Nith. The materials’ characteristic rich iron oxide colour helps to date them back over 250 million years to the Permian period, a time when our planet underwent a massive extinction event which paved the way for the rise of new dominant life forms. Loosely referencing myths of creation, Of Dust and Breath is an ode to the land, life and the unique interconnected imprints we leave behind as we make our way through time and place, forging and crossing paths as we and our loved ones come and go.

Popova’s abstract forms and textures evoke the sensation of the human touch, echoing the artist's exploration of tactile connections during a time of personal loss. Her paintings navigate this space in her characteristic elegant and concise abstract style, but this recent body of work allows a glimpse of something more. In-between the earthy washes of pigment and the biomorphic shapes, we get a sense of raw vulnerability and certainty. The works in Of Dust and Breath emerge out of this actuality, hypnotic, tactile, intimate and gently sensual, to reveal an almost mystical bond with nature and a deep kinship with all life forms. A monochromatic boldly graphic tapestry, titled I Feel Thy Footsteps with My Skin, where the Ouroboros encircles the Tree of Life surrounded by a celestial array of birds and stars, solidifies this bond, reconciling chthonic and celestial energies that honour the cycles of life and death, healing and regeneration.

Through a masterful blend of primordial materials and timeless symbols, Popova invites us to contemplate our own mortality and the enduring forces that bind us to the earth and each other, from Breath to Dust.

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OPENING RECEPTION

Join us for the Opening Reception in the presence of the Artist

FRIDAY 20 September 6-8 pm

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For further information please get in touch at info@ioneandmann.com

To register interest for the works please email: collecting@ioneandmann.com

For Press enquiries please email: press@ioneandmann.com

About:

Yelena Popova (b. 1978, Urals, USSR) is an artist living and working in Nottingham.

She is a graduate of the Royal College of Art in London (RCA, MA in Painting, 2009- 2011) and the Moscow Art Theatre School (MHAT, Set Design and Construction, 1995-2000).

She works across a range of media including painting, textiles, video and installation. Her works recall the graphics and the aesthetics of Russian Constructivism, Minimalism and Spiritual Abstraction, referenced in her paintings with the use of almost transparent geometric forms. Growing up in a secret Soviet nuclear settlement, Popova often turns her attention to nuclear history and heritage. Through reverberation of modernist aesthetics and the use of own-made paint from foraged natural materials, Popova questions the quest for continuous industrial development and the landscape of contemporary capitalism. 

Select solo exhibitions include: Made Ground, Cample Line (Scotland, 2022),  Showing Now, Touring Later, The Art House, Worcester University (2021), Landscapes of Power, Philipp von Rosen Galerie (Cologne, 2020), The Scholar Stones Project, Holden Gallery, MMU (Manchester 2020),  Her Name is Prometheus, L’etrangère, (London, 2018), Elements, Girton College, University of Cambridge, This Certifies That, Philip von Rosen Galerie (Cologne, 2017),  After Image, Nottingham Contemporary (2016).

Recent group exhibitions include: Matter as Actor, curated by Greg Hilty, Lisson Gallery (London, 2023), Slow Painting, curated by Martin Herbert for Hayward Touring (2019), Perpetual Uncertainty, curated by Ele Carpenter at Malmö Konstmuseum (Malmö, 2017), Future Light curated by Maria Lind for Vienna Biennale (Vienna, 2015).

Her work is included in Vitamin P3 (The 108 International Artists Revolutionizing Painting Today), published by Phaidon Press (2016) and Thames and Hudson’s 100 Painters of Tomorrow (2014).

Collections include: Arts Council Collection, Government Art Collection, The Women’s Art Collection, Nottingham Castle collection, RCA Collection, Saatchi Col­lec­tion, Zabludowicz Collection, and LWL Museum, Münster.

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