Media coverage and recommendations by curators and art critics about my work:
- “Every mother needs a child” – featured interview in September 2023 edition of Tarantula Authors and Art magazine, Maja Milanovic.
Sky my flower boy
- Radio interview with Francesca Placa during my artist residency in Berlin in Summer 2019
- Channel 10 National Israeli Television news item on Paula’s Solos exhibition – “Fun Fair”, February 2018
- And now to an item on a new art exhibition.
“Fun Fair”, in the 4 Florentine Gallery in Tel Aviv is a solo exhibition by the artist Paula Elion who paints expressive characters in an approach that plays between the realistic and “Bad painting”.
Elion draws inspiration from Pride parades, wild costume parties as well as children fairy tales.
In her works she tries to raise awareness to the “other” in society and to the hypocrisy.
The masks, according to Paula, are there to help us all survive.
“Fun Fair”, at 4 Florentine art gallery, Tel Aviv, is open until the 3rd of February. - Local newspaper article in Kassel, Germany about my exhibition together with Yum Nam at the Galeire Rasch (download as PDF)
English translation of the article:
The fragile chasms of our despair Yun Nam and Paula Elion at the Galerie Rasch: By Gesa Esterer
The houses are empty. Windows yawn open to show the black void that used to house the inhabitants, who have seemingly left their homes long ago. An enormous cloud rises in the background. Threatening are the two large drawings from Yun Nam, which are currently exhibited at the Galerie Rasch. The meticulous drawings are strewn on the floor of the gallery as if they were of marginal importance. However the neglect given to the drawings in their presentation further enhances the message, that the disastrous events of our world have become so commonplace, that we often fail to even notice them. The trembling ground devastated by forces of man and nature always lie in the distance.
The South-Korean-born artist, who has studied in Kassel and now lives in the USA, takes here references from social- and news media. She translates these motives onto paper with a fine pen one line at a time. The three meters high and two meters wide drawing took her the better part of a year to complete. Despite their massive size the drawings tell of the fragility of our world.
The Argentinian artist Paula Elion, who now lives in Israel, presents her paintings, which are painted on various fabrics and textiles from the flee market. She also takes her references from social media. One of her works on poppy red faux silk bares the title “At documenta 14”. The face of the portrayed woman, although smiling, sends a quiet chill down ones spine. Could there be something sinister lurking behind that superficial smile? Who is she? What is her connection to the documenta 14? No answers can be found here and soon the questions seem to lose their importance. The work “documenta 14 III” shows two men and a little girl with a bow and pig tales on a pale tablecloth. They are spectators observing the devastating, the jubilant, the enigmatic but ultimately unknown.
The exhibition as a whole is a gripping experience with the quiet unease of uncertainty creeping under your skin.