Milena Palakarkina

Milena Palakarkina, after her undergraduate studies at UCLA and NYU, the Bulgarian born artist meets Pierre Restany in 1983 in Milan. Under his influence she studies the life and works of Yves Klein and moves to Paris in 1984 in order to write a screenplay. While researching the project she reunites with Niki de Saint-Phale, whom she had met in Hollywood in 1978. Niki de Saint Phalle introduces her to Jean Tinguely in 1986 and the young woman abandons the screenplay to follow Tinguely to Switzerland where she returns to painting.

Milena Palakarkina shares the last five years of Jean Tinguely's life and creates with him a series of paintings Märtyrer und Gespenster, which includes three collaborations with Jean Tinguely - The Altars: Saint Sebastian (1988), Saint Christopher/Rococo (1989), and Kathryn , Bride of Christ (1990). The collection is shown at the gallery Jamile Weber in Zurich in 1990, at the Gallery Hans Mayer in Düsseldorf in 1991. The Altar Saint Sebastian was shown in the retrospective of Jean Tinguely in Musee d'Art et d'Histoire in Fribourg in 1991. The three collaborations were shown at the Gallery Beaubourg in 1996 - and at Padiglione d'Arte Contemporanea in Milan in 2008. The works could be seen today at the Rossini Foundation in Carate Brianza in Northern Italy.

Five months after the death of Tinguely she gives birth to their son and moves back to Paris where she continues to work and participate in the contemporary figurative art scene.;.