Eduard Zelenin was born in 1938 in Novokuznetsk, Siberia. He attended art school in Sverdlovsk and in 1958 moved to Leningrad and entered the Repin Academy of Art. In the late 1960s and early 1970s he exhibited his artwork in private studios and in the Blue Bird Café. In 1971 he moved to Vladimir and began to research cultural history. He sought to achieve a synthesis of arts, drawing on elements of Russian religious art for his work.
Zelenin’s art lies at the intersection of the most diverse styles and directions. It organically includes photo-realism and the metaphysical traditions of Surrealism, balancing thereby the Leningrad and Moscow schools of the underground.
In 1975 Zelenin emigrated to France but maintained close ties with the alternative artistic community in Russia. He has exhibited his art throughout Europe. He lives in Paris.
