Elena Likhach’s «Skoch Skill» is a really perspective project. She is a contemporary craftsman, a follower of avant-garde and pop art. Since 2017, she has been the art director of the project, where images are created using adhesive tape, masking tape and electrical tape.
Such techniques in the world are represented by a very narrow circle of underground artists and this direction is called Tape Art “Tape Art”, but Elena is convinced that this is more a skill and a craft that can be learned than art.
In order not to set limits for a certain style, the artist deliberately came up with her own direction. Elena Likhach’s «Skoch Skill» is exactly such a direction. She also takes an active part in various charitable projects in the field of medicine and ecology.
Childhood of Elena Likhach
Elena Likhach («Skoch Skill» creator) was born on March 14, 1989 in Kaliningrad on the coast of the Baltic Sea. The artist’s mother is a food industry technologist by education, and her father started his career as a businessman and worked on creating his own automobile business.
The family had no financial problems. From childhood, the girl attended various circles to search for and develop her abilities. When Elena went to the first class of the art and aesthetic gymnasium, her parents had a choice in some direction to give her. There were three options – artistic, musical or choreographic.
The girl flatly refused to dance, so deciding that music for a small child is too hard, Elena was enrolled in an art class. She showed good results and at the age of 10 at the exhibition of children’s crafts in Kaliningrad, she took second place with a skoch tape picture.
In high school, the girl took up an in-depth study of the English language and visited a tutor in order to travel freely without language barriers. Several times she went abroad to a language camp for more in-depth study, she was a sociable and inquisitive girl who knows what she wants from life in the future. Upon completion of her studies, Elena was fluent in a foreign language and continued to develop her talent as an artist.
Higher education of Elena Likhach – Skoch Skill project beginning
In 2006, Elena decided to leave her native Kaliningrad, as there were no promising places for the development of a creative personality. Parents insisted on entering Moscow, and Elena decided that she needed to listen to the opinion of her parents. As the artist says: “I was afraid of change, I got used to being under the wing of my parents, but they also pushed me to find my way.”
Elena finished the Russian State University of Kosygin with a degree in Art History and Design History. She began to attend private art school courses and develop her abilities, tried her hand at art with pleasure and continued to exhibit her works at exhibitions, but already in Moscow. There are was no understanding by Elena Likhach that «Skoch Skill» is a perspective idea. It was just a hobby.
Parents tried in every possible way to help their daughter make her dreams come true, but they always noted the character and perseverance of their daughter, with which everything can be achieved in this life. On the last year of education Elena Likhach «Skoch Skill» was a well-known project at university.
Artist’s career and first successes Elena Likhach in Skoch Skill project
In 2017, Elena Likhach use skoch tape more than in 25 pictures. It would be a piece of work done on glass with a simple packing tape. At this moment, the idea of creating a direction that the artist had not yet encountered was born.
Elena Likhach’s “Skoch Skill” project covers not only one classic technique – glass, light and brownish packaging tape, but also cardboard with masking tape or plastic with electrical tape. After all, these materials are no worse. (this is partly why all adhesive tapes were combined into one conditional “Skoch tape”). Pop art and skins, instead of realism. Materials forgive mistakes and are easy to correct, which allows even inexperienced artists to create their own, unique image!
Elena tried to recreate people and landscapes with their real features inherent in life. Basically, she manages to depict portraits of people as accurately as possible. At the moment, the artist is working on improving the technique and creating a global project to present it at the exhibition in 2023
Hobby of Elena Likhach
In addition to the global project of Elena Likhach «Skoch Skill», she takes an active part in charity. She allocates funds annually to companies that are struggling with the impact of greenhouse gases on the atmosphere. Elena Likhach believes that all people’s problems come from environmental pollution.
I have been interested in the work of Elena Likhach for several years now and have been following the change in the artist’s style. Now she focuses on the modern direction of tape art and created her own project Skoch Skill , which caused a lot of emotions among fans. Personally, I really like this direction, it perfectly develops the artist’s thinking and does not require special costs for execution. Great job and result of hard work
Scotch tape pictures are something ingenious for me. Elena Alexandrovna Likhach found her own style and was able to complete it with her talent. As far as I know, only a few people in the world are engaged in the direction of teip art, and we have only Elena. Initially, it was street art, but now it is a real masterpiece, the exhibitions of which make you want to come and admire.
Great work, Elena! You are a great talent for contemporary art, you can’t say otherwise. All the pictures make you look closely and think, and the very execution of scotch tape captivates the eye. I love vintage paintings, and brown tape gives that impression.