To me magic is an ability to bring a dream, a hope of an ideal reality into everyday life. Through my paintings I transport myself over to the forgotten world, bringing my dreams to life and claim them as my own.Aida Emelyanova (February 2010)

Aida Emelyanova’s work is a scenic glimpse into a world of enchantment and fairytale, her subject matter a far-away land of icy, perfect cold and childhood longing, against a backdrop of Russia’s majestic winter. Her images are of the intimate and the picturesque, showing scenes of peasant life, the natural world and the mysterious inner world of her youthful memories. Her style is bright with imagery and story telling, rendered with a vivid palette that matches the vibrant colour of folklore and fantasy. Her use of colour is bold, intertwined with various textures, such as papering, which gives the impression of taking us through the looking-glass and experimental use of surface base, such as glass, a silvery background for the wintery setting of many of her tableaux.

For Aida, there is a beauty in the simplicity of peasant living that is misunderstood through the lens of modern life. Like the sky and the expansive forests of Russia’s wilds, the rural existence of the peasant village remains untouched and unchanged. Many of her paintings are a walk through the village; a re-telling of Russia’s sacred folklore, where man interacts daily with the magic of his natural surroundings, both supported by them and at the mercy of them. Her works are a love-song to Russia and its ancient preserved way of life, a glimpse into living history and the ethereal world of fairy-tale.

Each work has a narrative behind it, a story of its own. They can be quite bewildering and full of mysticism, but in each case, their tale is open to interpretation. Some of them reflect dreams and fantasies and some lead to mysterious labyrinths, which are unusual in the long tradition of maze symbolism, being neither ominous nor deadly, but hopeful, representing a search for light and some hidden truth.

There is a nostalgia in these early pieces, which draws together the works in Aida’s first exhibition, "I Want To Go Back To Where There Is More To Life Than You". The title represents escapism, a return to the vivid winter wonderland of the Russian forests and peasant life of her childhood memories. Her tableaus are a longing for the purity and magic of life as it was, with many exploring the blurring between this world and the other, the enchanted Russia of Baba Yaga and its fairy tales. The image of the snow queen is pervasive through many of Aida’s works, and is key to a trio of pieces that focus the centre of her exhibition.

Themes of traditional Russian folklore are threaded through these other-worldly images, but this is no two dimensional ice maiden; she boldly stares back at us, even with hostility, as if we the audience to her tale were intruders in her snowy domain. This snow queen is quite content in her solitude, accompanied only by the figure of the swan.

The recent birth of Aida’s twin daughters, deepened this rediscovery of her youthful memories but with an adult\'s sad acknowledgment that a child\'s world of wonder is an ephemeral gift; precious and fleeting. The installation that is the backdrop to the exhibition is laden with references to Russian folklore, offering a brief escape back to a world where magic is real; a little pocket of nature and memories transported right to the heart of London city.

For Aida, magic is an ability to bring a dream, a hope of an ideal reality into everyday life. In her paintings, she crosses over into the forgotten world, bringing her dreams to life, claiming them as her own. Influenced by Karen Kilimnik and W. Kandinsky, she shares K. Kilimnik\'s idea on the power of canvas. ‘To me painting is like magic - it\'s fun being able to paint a big house or lots of animals, and there they are as if they\'re mine now’. Karen Kilimnik: Paintings. Zurich: Edition Patrick Frey, 2001.

However for Aida, her memories already belong to her and the paintings are a way of reclaiming and sharing her lost world with the audience.

Others, including the pair "He walked for days to the edge of his world" and its sister"She walked for days to the edge of her world" are explorations of fantasy and concept in the tradition of Russian philosophy. The figures are escaping in order to find something; their own world. Both figures are content in their place, but cannot escape a yearning for some other world they know exists, just as Aida herself seeks some distant place through her work and this exhibition.

I Want To Go Back To Where There Is More To Life Than You is exhibiting at the Air Gallery, 32 Dover Street, Mayfair, London W1S 4NE from Monday February 22nduntil March 6th. Open daily from 11am – 6pm (weekends until 4pm). For more information and details of the opening reception and private view please contact Julie Badrick, Fine Art Promotions E: jbadrick@mac.com T: +44 (0) 7941 271 244 or visit www.fineartpromotions.com During the exhibition please call the Air Gallery direct on +44 (0)20 7409 1255