Fellows Exhibition: Elena Kovylyaeva and Carlos Zerpa
Ropeless
Opening: Friday, April 18, 5-8 PM
On View April 18 to 27, 2025
Hudson D. Walker Gallery
Ropeless is an interactive VR experience – currently presented as a work-in-progress prototype – responding to the imminent extinction of the North Atlantic Right Whale, a species pushed to the brink by chronic entanglement in fishing gear and other man-made threats. Through the voices of marine conservation experts and a Shibari artist, the work explores the dual nature of rope—as a tool of connection, control, and harm. Immersed in a shifting landscape of vulnerability and threat, Ropeless weaves human and animal bodies, intimacy and violence, survival and collapse—culminating in a visceral call for a ropeless sea.
More about this exhibition at: https://linktr.ee/ropeless
Please note: The gallery is available to visit from Tuesday through Saturday from noon am to 5 pm. Please visit the administrative offices to be shown to the gallery.
About the Artists
Elena Kovylyaeva is a visual artist based in Leipzig, Germany, whose work examines the intersection of materiality and memory. Using found materials, she creates detailed tactile surfaces that engage the body, incorporating elements of painting, textile art, and sculpture. Born in Russia and raised in Düsseldorf, Germany from the age of five, Kovylyaeva studied film and literature in Berlin before pursuing painting and graphic arts at the Academy of Fine Arts Leipzig, where she graduated with a diploma in 2020. She then earned her MFA in painting from the Hoffberger School of Painting at Maryland Institute College of Art in Baltimore, supported by Fulbright and DAAD scholarships, from 2021 to 2023. In 2022, she participated in the Fulbright Artist Residency at the Silvermine Arts Center in Connecticut. Kovylyaeva’s work has been exhibited in both Germany and the USA, including at the Grimaldis Gallery and the Peale Museum in Baltimore.
Carlos Arturo Zerpa is an interdisciplinary artist, creative producer, educator, and social entrepreneur based in Caracas, Venezuela. Rooted in cooperation and solidarity, his work branches into scriptwriting, design, animation, and street art, and it’s moved by the power of storytelling and innovation as engaging forces for change, especially in addressing social issues of South America and the Caribbean.
Since 2010, Carlos has led ECL-MECHA, an award-winning creative cooperative focused on empowering underrepresented characters by crafting transgressive, insightful, and irreverent animated stories. In 2022, he co-founded RIMA, a digital platform that connects Global South artists with international mobility and financing opportunities. From 2012-2016, Carlos co-founded and taught in ENGRAPO, a public experimental visual communication school that hosted two cohorts of disenfranchised youth.
He’s received fellowships from Locarno Open Doors, Berlinale Talents, the Global Cultural Relationships Platform, and has been an artist in residence at Santa Fe Art Institute, the Bemis Center, the Saari Residency, Corsicana Artist and Writer Residency, Kulturhaus Villa Sträuli, La Maison des Auteurs, and Instituto Sacatar, amongst others.
The Fine Arts Work Center is committed to making its facilities inclusive and accessible for everyone. If you need any accommodations to fully participate, please contact our Accessibility Coordinator, Susan Blood, at 508-487-9960, extension 106.
Both the Stanley Kunitz Common Room and the Hudson D. Walker Gallery meet ADA accessibility standards. If you need help accessing these spaces, please call us at 508-487-9960 ext. 101 before your visit.
