LELYA

Title: ЛЁЛЯ / LELYA Series: Russian Longing / Русская тоска Date: June 2026 Materials: Polymer clay, hand-sculpted, hand-painted with acrylics, matte varnish «Russian Longing» is a series of eight polymer clay heads. The project grows out of lived observation and pulls into the light characters that usually hide in the crowd or in memory. The form hovers on a fine line: either these are deliberate plastic exaggerations, almost surreal grotesques, or simply the most ordinary Russian face — the kind you might encounter in a queue, on a bus, in an old family album. The matte surface, muted earthy tones and frozen silence turn each piece into an art object about inner quiet, fatigue, and that very longing which doesn't scream, but lives inside for years.