Elen Bezhen - At Dorothy Circus Gallery

I had the pleasure of attending the private view of Elen Bezhen’s solo show, Still Garden, at Dorothy Circus Gallery on the 21^st of February. Having seen her artwork online, I was quite excited to see the real thing because pictures on small screens can never capture the precise colours, or brush strokes, of a finished piece.

On arriving at the gallery, my first urge was to get close to the paintings to start enjoying their atmosphere. Some of the paintings are quite large and really draw in the viewer with all their details and the characters are almost staring at the viewer asking us to look. In other paintings, the characters are in their own world, relaxing, blissfully ignoring the viewer. However, like most private views, there are quite a few people milling about wanting to do exactly the same thing. It is almost like going to the Louvre to see a well-known painting and finding that many other people had the same idea. The problem with that is that you can’t quite stand far enough to capture that full picture view, as you are gradually drawn in by the characters, slowly approaching the artwork, letting the colours become more vibrant and the brushstrokes more prominent. While private views are an excellent way of meeting the artists, and talking to other artists and collectors, I will generally return during quiet periods to really enjoy the paintings and what they have to offer.

"Teatime with Bruegel" (2025) by Elen Bezhen

 Elen Bezhen doesn’t disappoint. Her artwork has a vibrancy that is hard to capture when armed only with a phone camera. The snow on her “Teatime with Bruegel” almost sparkled like glitter under sunlight. The paintings felt alive and Teatime was flanked by “Portrait with an Apple” on one side, and “Portrait with an Apple and Orange” on the other, which felt as if they were guarding the privacy of the couple having tea. They were almost looking down at the viewer, judging them as they approached the larger painting. Their impassive faces reminded me of teenagers, when you are trying to teach them something they claim to already know.  

Having read Bezhen’s biography and finding out she greatly admires and was influenced by the painters of the Northern Renaissance; I decided to look up Bruegel and ended up going down a rabbit hole when looking at Bezhen’s paintings to see which similar elements I could find. Bruegel’s "Hunters in the Snow” (1565) was the closest I could get to in terms of the shared elements of Flemish and Dutch architecture,  and the events could be taking place in a similar region, but while there is lots of activity in Bruegel’s painting, Teatime gives us the impression that everyone has now gone into their homes and are all sitting around the table in their cozy warm home enjoying a cup of tea. Although in some homes, a couple might be sitting together in silence, lost in their own thoughts. The colourful birds swooping outside, oblivious to the humans and their issues, their only interest – have they topped up the bird feeder.

"Portrait with an Apple and Orange" (2025)

"Portrait with an Apple" (2025) by Elen Bezhen

One of my favourite paintings on display at Dorothy Circus was “Portrait with a Donkey” (2024) because of the calm emanating from it. The subject looks so much at peace hugging his foal, he has him all wrapped up in an expensive looking blanket. The fabrics in this painting were exquisitely painted with attention to detail and texture. The flowers surrounding them just pop.

"Portrait with a Donkey" (2024)

"Hirondu Rustica" (2025)

“Hirundo Rustica” (2025), however, was the star of the show attracting many admirers and comments. The subject is looking away from the Hirundo house swallow, a bird that symbolises summer freedom, happiness, spring and love. Outside the window, the trees are still bare, and the ground is covered with snow. The feeling that winter will never end is still in the air. The impression I am given is that the subject is trying to read the bird as if it could predict the future and try to ascertain when will this freedom come to them.

Elen Bezhen’s Still Garden solo exhibition will be at Dorothy Circus until the 21^st of March 2026. The gallery is located on 35, Connaught Street, W2 2AZ, London, UK. The closest underground station is Marble Arch (Central Line) and it is approximately an 8 minute walk from there.