Elena Kotenko navigates the evolving landscape of AI-generated art with a clarity and emotional force that few creators have managed to achieve. Born in Ukraine and now based in New York, she creates visual narratives that dive headfirst into fractured identity, fragmented memory, and long-suppressed emotion—quickly establishing herself as one of the most compelling voices in the international AI art scene.
“Rather than using artificial intelligence as a cold instrument,” observed a curator at her recent London show, “Kotenko collaborates with it—drawing out not just images, but entire emotional ecosystems that live and breathe.”
In contrast to many AI practitioners who center their work on technical experimentation or aesthetics, Kotenko views artificial intelligence not as a tool, but as a mirror—reflecting the inner human condition with unsettling clarity. Her art-house films and emotionally saturated visual series have already captured the attention of global critics and curators, thanks to her signature blend of poetic intensity, emotional vulnerability, and visual sophistication.
Her unique path to art began in a different world altogether. Armed with a PhD in law, Kotenko made a radical shift from intellectual logic to emotional truth—from courtroom to canvas. That analytical rigor now fuses with raw expression, allowing her to navigate the intersection of technology and humanity with rare precision and depth.
At her recent exhibition in London, dedicated to contemporary AI art, her work stood apart: haunting, cinematic, and unexpectedly human. Her machine-generated pieces, far from sterile or overly stylized, pulse with longing, grief, tenderness, and unresolved memory. The effect is disarming. Algorithms, in her hands, become a language for the unspeakable.
This summer, New York audiences will have a chance to witness her latest work at an upcoming AI art exhibition. Focused on themes of vulnerability, disconnection, and the fragile beauty of being, Kotenko’s new series continues her exploration of AI as a vessel for emotional truth—technology used not to dazzle, but to deepen.
What distinguishes her is not only the content she explores but how she renders it. Her images feel carved out of silence. They don’t just tell stories—they echo. Her characters are often suspended in in-between states: not fully real, not fully digital. This liminality becomes the stage where memory and identity unravel and reconstruct themselves.
Her films do not parade algorithmic tricks. They explore internal weather—inner collapse, intimate rage, catharsis. In an industry often obsessed with spectacle and novelty, Kotenko invites stillness, disorientation, and reflection. Her work asks: What does it mean to feel in the age of machines?
As artificial intelligence continues to reshape the creative industries, Kotenko stands at the frontier of this evolution—not as a technician, but as a storyteller. Her art challenges the assumption that machine-made work must be emotionally hollow. Instead, she proposes the opposite: that AI might help us confront what we most fear to face.
Critics have repeatedly pointed to her ability to maintain human intimacy even in fully generated visuals. The textures may be synthetic, but the pain, the longing, the truth—they are unmistakably real. In a field often dominated by surface brilliance, her emotional authenticity is revolutionary.
Kotenko’s body of work continues to expand—technically, thematically, and geographically. To explore more of her evolving projects, visit her official site: lenko.art or follow her on Instagram at @lenko.group. As she prepares for her New York debut, her voice grows louder, steadier. Through AI, she is not simulating emotion. She is exorcising it.