YELENA SIMONE
In the course of a diverse career of visual art, performance and education, Yelena Simone has turned from traditional visual art to take up sand animation, an awe-inspiring form of performance art, which she creates right before your eyes. As an internationally known artist with a Masters Degree in Visual Arts (oil painting and graphics), Simone has a number of her art pieces belonging to State Public Collections and Museums, as well as to private collections in Europe, Asia and North America.
As a sand artist she is excited by the challenge of creating and performing live shows, working as a film/show director, screenwriter, choreographer, artist and performer, as it is an amalgamation of many different art forms. She sees sand animation as a synthesis in which image, music and movement work together to create an emotion and idea that couldn’t be expressed by one art element alone.
She often appears at opening and closing ceremonies of private and corporate events and festivals, as well as performing on stage together with musicians and symphonic orchestras.
EDUCATION
MFA, State University of Belarus, Fine Arts / Visual Arts
AWARDS AND FELLOWSHIPS
1998 Winner of the Manitoba Graphic Design Competition (Winnipeg, Canada)
1994 Artist of the year (Tel-Aviv, Israel)
1992 / 94 Resident Artist – State Art Studio (Tel-Aviv/Yaffa, Israel)
1990 State Residence Fellowship (Novgorod, Russia) Ministry of Culture
1989 International Artists in Residence Fellowship (Bobruisk, Belarus)
1988 European Artists Fellowship (Berlin, Germany) Cultural Exchange
1988 State Residence Fellowship (Sednev, Ukraine) Ministry of Culture
1987 Gurzuf Fellowship (Ukraine) Ministry of Culture
1987 State Residence Fellowship (Moscow) Ministry of Culture
PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE
2015 - Detroit Opera House, Gala Concert "Réalité L'Art" - sand show "A Renaissance" (Detroit, USA)
2014 – present Windsor Symphony Orchestra – series of sand shows for 2015/2016 concert season (Windsor, Canada)
1999 - 2003 Founder and director “KidsArtSmart Inc.” (Windsor, Canada)
1997 – 1999 Graphic Designer – Federal Government of Canada (Winnipeg, Canada)
1988 – 1991 Professor of the State University of Belarus (Minsk, Belarus)
1988 - 1989 Lecturer for Union of Artists (Berlin, Germany)
PUBLIC COLLECTIONS
State Art Museum, Ukraine
State Art Gallery, Novgorod, Russia
State Art Gallery, Bobruisk, Belarus
Ministry of Culture of Russian Federation, Moscow
Ministry of Culture of Belarus, Minsk
Art Fund, Moscow, Russia
Art Fund, Minsk, Belarus
Artist Union Art Stocks, Belarus
Palace of Arts, Minsk, Belarus
Many of her art works could be found in the private collections in Russia, Belarus, Ukraine, Germany, Poland, France, Israel, Finland, England, Netherlands, Italy, Dania, Belgium, Switzerland, Austria, Japan, Canada, and United States.