Svetlana Sphinx

Artist Bio

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     Svetlana Sphinx was born in Vladivostok, the provincial city in Russia, in 1985. Since her childhood she has been a daydreamer. Every evening you could find her wandering in a park near home, searching for magic and imagining that a path was the Milky Way and lanterns were stars. This park used to be a graveyard until 1932, so it was really mystic place. With a little help of fantasy strangers looked like odd anthropomorphic creatures. Night dreams after such walk were colourful and amazing. As to her first paintings, they represented cosmic streets with their fabulous inhabitants and black portraits of weird ghostly persons.

     In her teens Svetlana became interested in theosophy, especially in alchemy in its figurative meaning of soul transformation as described by Carl Gustav Jung. She started experimenting with oil painting at night, by the light of candles, as if it was some mystic ritual.

     In 2008 Svetlana had a solo show “Moon Dreams” in Arseniev State Museum of Primorsky Region. Her works, pervaded with symbols of hermetic philosophy, were taken by audience as riddles that made people reflect closely searching a clue in the very collective unconscious. Thus came her nickname Sphinx, although until 2020 she had been going by her real name of Svetlana Elf.

     In 2013 Svetlana moved to Moscow. Megapolis opened more opportunities. She participated in more than 30 group exhibitions and several competitions. She became 1st place winner of “Visionary Art Award” in 2018, “Russian Art Week” in 2016,“Art Week in Great Britain” in 2015.

     Svetlana looks forward to space residences welcoming artists. This future of space coming closer and magic coming true inspires her to dream of secrets of the universe and create mystic and romantic paintings.