ELENA ILKU is a native of Ukraine, where she earned a Masters degree in History of Art and Design. She currently lives and works in British Columbia. She started her career as a professional artist in 1985, and since then has been extensively travelling, working and exhibiting her work throughout Europe and North America. She continued her artistic education in France and the United Kingdom, which helped her to develop a unique style of painting.

Elena produces highly original work, in which there is a release of emotion and a strangely captivating balance between abstraction and figuration. The signs and symbols of Slavonic Icon, one of her favourite subjects in early works, continue to evoke the feeling and memories of old times. Elena is a master at depicting familiar surroundings but by way of suggestion. She succeeds in expressing a deeply felt sense of unity and wholeness, balancing colour, form and composition. The consequences of this process are powerful yet elusive.

Elena has participated in many personal and group exhibitions and her work can be found in corporate and private collections throughout Europe and North America.