Elena Stashkova (Ionova) was born in 1986. She is a Sheffield-based artist and poet. She graduated from the Ural College of Applied Arts with a degree in Design and from the Nizhny Tagil Pedagogical Academy with a degree in Fine Arts Teaching. She has been living in the United Kingdom since 2022 and entered the country on a Global Talent visa. She is a mother of three children. Elena Stashkova is the author of three solo exhibitions in Russia. Her work has also been presented in group exhibitions in London, Brighton, Sheffield, and Barnsley. She works in the genre of magical realism and engages with European Christian and pagan archetypes. Her practice spans multiple formats, from large-scale works to small pieces, using materials such as acrylic, papier-mâché, and textiles. One of the most recent projects she participated in focused on portraits of Russian political prisoners; this project was exhibited in the United States, Japan, France, Germany, and the Czech Republic.