Elena Starostina

Elena Starostina was born in Moscow in 1965 and knew from the age of five that she wanted to become an artist. She began her studies at the Stroganov University in 1984, taking part in plein-air painting expeditions to the Russian North while also working on restoration and archaeological projects, primarily in Novgorod and Pskov.

After graduating, Starostina worked in restoration studios in Moscow, contributing to important cultural sites including the Bolshoi Theatre, the Kremlin, the Kuskovo estate, and other Russian museums. At the same time, she developed her own practice in urban landscape and still-life painting. A member of the Moscow Union of Artists since 1994, she exhibited widely in Moscow and Berlin before moving with her family to Germany in 2005.

In Germany, Starostina continued to exhibit in Aachen, Kohlscheid, Kerpen, Maastricht, and other locations, while participating in group exhibitions through AHA Aachen. Across painting, restoration, and exhibition practice, her work reflects sustained attention to nature, place, cultural memory, and the relationship between landscape and lived experience.

Birch Grove

140 x 300 cm | Three-part work

Birch Grove turns a stand of white trunks into a rhythmic field of vertical light. Fine black lines and warm ochre foliage create tension between delicacy and monumentality, while the three-panel composition allows the forest to unfold as an enveloping, continuous landscape.

Sky in Lake

140 x 100 cm

Sky in Lake reverses the familiar landscape: clouds appear to drift beneath the mountains as the lake becomes a second sky. Saturated cobalt, turquoise, white, and gold build a luminous threshold between solid land and weightless reflection.

Lake in Sky

140 x 100 cm

Lake in Sky lifts the reflective language of water upward. Billowing clouds dominate the vertical field, while a narrow lake and mountain horizon anchor the composition below. Blue, white, and metallic gold connect atmosphere and water until their boundaries begin to dissolve.

Olive Tree

160 x 300 cm | Three-part work

Pinie

100 x 150 cm

Roots

160 x 300 cm | Three-part work

Roots expands the hidden structure of a tree into a monumental three-part study. Dense black marks descend and spread across a pale ground, while areas of gold introduce warmth and vitality. The work makes underground connection visible as an active, almost flowing architecture.

Wasserfall

140 x 100 cm

Wasserfall reduces a falling body of water to movement, pressure, and vertical rhythm. Turquoise and pale blue stream through layered black marks, suggesting rock, reflection, and descent. The image shifts between landscape and abstraction, holding the eye within the force of the fall.

Stream

140 x 100 cm

Stream traces water as it moves around and between a field of dark stones. Turquoise currents, gray-black forms, and flashes of gold turn the scene into a study of passage: water adapts to every obstacle without surrendering its direction.

See

140 x 100 cm

See brings the viewer close to a quiet expanse of water framed by mountains and crossed by leaning branches. Transparent blues, black contours, and gold highlights layer surface, reflection, and depth, creating a landscape that feels both observed and remembered.

Selected Artistic CV

● 1984 — Began studies at the Stroganov University; participated in plein-air painting expeditions to the Russian North and in restoration and archaeological projects in Novgorod and Pskov.
● 1988–2005 — Annual spring and autumn exhibitions of the Moscow Association of Painters, Moscow.
● 1994 — Became a member of the Moscow Union of Artists.
● 1995 — Participated in the “Golden Brush” exhibition, Moscow.
● 1998 — Group exhibition at the Central House of Artists, Moscow.
● 1999–2001 — Several exhibitions in Berlin with support from the Russian House and the Galerie Oranienburger Straße.
● 1999 — Solo exhibition at the Russian House, Berlin.
● 2000 — Solo exhibition, Berlin.
● 2000 — Solo exhibitions in Moscow at Galereya na Peschannoi, Galereya Tvorchestvo, and the gallery on Triumphal Square.
● 2002–2004 — Worked closely with the artists’ association “Moscow.” Her painting “Bagration Bridge” won the competition “Moscow Through the Eyes of the Young.”
● 2005 — Moved with her family to Germany.
● Aachen — Exhibitions at Seelensorge Aachen, Mayersche Buchhandlung, and
Luisenhospital; works represented at Galerie Bücken.
● 2008–2009 — Solo exhibition, Mayersche Buchhandlung.
● 2009 — Exhibition, Galerie Bücken, Kohlscheid.
● 2009, 2010, and 2012 — Group exhibition “100 Artists — 100 Tiles.”
● 2009 — Solo exhibition, Seele Sorge, Aachen.
● 2010 — Solo exhibition, Microsoft Technology Center, Moscow.
● 2010 — Solo exhibition, Burg Hemmersbach, Kerpen.
● 2010 — “Dialogue East–West” group exhibition.
● 2011 — Exhibition, Galerie Bücken, Kohlscheid.
● 2012 — Joined AHA Aachen and subsequently participated in numerous exhibitions with the association.
● 2012 — Solo exhibition, Bucher Insel, Aachen.
● 2012 — AHA annual exhibition.
● 2013 — “Between Ground and Domes,” Interkultur AH; annual exhibition “Paths Upward.”
● 2013 — Solo exhibition, Annakirche parish hall, Aachen.
● 2014–2015 — AHA group exhibition, Maastricht Kunsttour.
● 2014 — “Autobahn,” AHA group exhibition, curated by Dirk Tölke.
● 2014–2015 — Exhibitions within the intercultural MozArte Festival, Aachen. Starostina’s Mozart portrait was selected as an identifying image for the festival.
● 2016 — “Blue Hours,” AHA group exhibition.
● 2017 — “7+2” group exhibition, Aachen.
● 2017 — Exhibition of the Josef Gulpers collection, including Starostina’s portrait of Josef Gulpers.
● 2017 — “Orangerie,” Galerie KunsTraum, Aachen.
● 2017 — “Étude by the Sea,” Galerie KunsTraum, Aachen.