Yelena Popova's solo exhibition 'Moments of Grace' opens at Osnova gallery's new space in Valencia, Spain, marking a decade of collaboration between the artist and the gallery. The show brings together works from several of Popova's major series, including 'Painting Installations' (2012-2017), 'Evaporating Paintings', 'Post-Petrochemical Paintings', and three jacquard-woven tapestries, tracing her practice over the past fifteen years. Popova approaches each project as part of an interconnected body of work, comparing her logic to garden cultivation—a layered, cyclical process. Her cross-disciplinary research focuses on the material conditions of painting, exploring temporal transformations like evaporation, oxidation, and decay, as well as the dynamics between image, surface, and space.
The exhibition matters because it highlights Popova's innovative engagement with painting's materiality and its political dimensions, particularly in the 'Post-Petrochemical Paintings' series, where she uses organic substances like soil and ash from industrial sites to propose alternatives to synthetic, non-decomposing materials. Her integration of tapestry, where the image is woven into the fabric rather than applied to the surface, extends her inquiry into textile logic and symbolism. By addressing themes of ecological decay, cyclical continuity, and cross-disciplinary knowledge—from quantum physics to Eastern European folklore—Popova's work challenges the attention economy and invites a durational, contemplative gaze, positioning her as a significant contemporary voice in material-based painting.