Known & Unknown - The Art Club Salmagundi NY challenges emerging artists to dare and be bold - Elena Bria answers it

Salmagundi Club NY is an extraordinary place for artists and art lovers. Not only because it is a fabulous home for creatives, with its galleries, halls, library, and the beloved speakeasy bar, but also because it’s a formidable springboard and platform for emerging artists.

This year the Club, and the passionate, talented Chair of the Junior/Scholarship Program Stella Chang, set the stage for a great display of art, posing a unique challenge to the participants of the program: to join the “Known & Unknown” exhibition, in which they present works from both their principal form of expression and an unfamiliar one. A challenge, to display their strengths and to show how they can think out of the box.

I was particularly intrigued by this project, not only as a writer for Livein Magazine, but as a Salmagundi resident artist myself, and I asked Stella if I could interview few of the artists admitted to the show to hear directly from them how they dealt with that challenge. I was able to have three great conversations. With Joseph Mandel, Elena Bria, and Jaivin McCoy.

I came up with five straightforward questions. No filters. Without mincing words.

In this series of three interviews, the present is the second one, and with the recipient of the first place award, Elena Bria, from Moldova, who admirably flew all the way from Europe to attend the opening reception where she found out she was actually the winner of the exhibition.

1. What brought you to realism and the choice of your materials?

Elena tells me that she always loved to paint live since she started art school when she was only 7 years old, and she still remembers the day her teacher took her class in the outdoor to draw real flowers, and how excited she was. That was the moment she connected with realism, so much so that, since that day, she started drawing and painting everything in her house, and really doing abstract never crossed her mind. Since those early years she has painted in life, and never from photos or memory. Also the choice of using oil paint dates back to her education at the art school, and she has stuck to it both because she says it comes natural to her - she “feels it,” in her own words - and because she likes the final look and result of a work.

2. How does an object/person/scene become the subject of your work?

Elena shares how, in different stages of her life she has had different criteria, mostly based on observation. For example, during covid she often went for a wolk in a forest nearby and looked at the outdoors and nature, and let her inspiration get caught by a certain color or atmosphere. She normally likes to work on black backgrounds, which usually allows her to better highlight certain details in her works. Otherwise her process to select subjects relies almost entirely on intuition and her perceptiveness: her interest might be tickled by a person she sees in real life, sometimes friends, or even by somebody she notices on Instagram whom she likes and then contacts.

3. What do you think about New York? How do you find the current art scene?

Elena tells me that she quickly fell in love with New York, because she perceives it as a place of beginnings and new starts, and absorbs the energy that the people of New York give off. The way she describes it is a comparison with a river; when she is in the City she feels to be in a flow, where you can't be static, and you are carried by it. And, when it comes to the local art scene, she was pleasantly surprised to see how much people are interested in figurative and realism. 

4. What do you like about the Salmagundi Club?

Without hesitation, Elena tells me that she likes the club's atmosphere and seeing so many artists immersed in art there. She feels that it is an authentic place with great artists, in a great location, filled with nice people. Its historic library is the crown jewel of a remarkable landmark.

Elena Bria - Dolce far niente - Oil - 2021

5. What can you tell us about the works of yours selected for the upcoming show in May?

She started by doing sketches, then moved on to the background and decorations. Afterwards, she focused on the models. Initially, she had the whole group pose together for 7 hours in her studio, then she had the individual models come one at a time. Because she typically paints portraits, for her to do a whole group composition was a very challenging process.

I was fascinated by my conversation with Elena. What a kind and delicate talent.

In the following article, we will have another conversation with Jaivin McCoy. Stay tuned.

Article by Joseph Ralph Fraia

Images courtesy of Elena Bria and Salmagundi Club NY