Véronique Ellena is a visual artist who studied photography at ENSAV La Cambre in Brussels.

She has received several public commissions (CNAP in Paris, André Malraux Museum in Le Havre). Her work is part of many public and private collections such as Centre Georges Pompidou, FNAC, FRAC Île-de-France, Florence & Damien Bachelot collection.

She exhibited at the Rencontres d'Arles in 2009 where she was presented by Christian Lacroix as part of the Discovery Award. In 2018 she is invited by the Réattu Museum in Arles for a retrospective of her work. And in 2019, some of her works are selected for the exhibition Elles question de genre at the Paul Dini Museum (Villefranche sur Saône). In November 2019, her work will be part of the collections of the new Museum of Cultures and Landscape in Hyères.

She obtained prestigious residences (Villa Medicis, Foundation of Treilles) as well as the “Liliane Bettencourt Prize for the intelligence of the hand” for the Millenium Stained Glass of Strasbourg Cathedral.

Véronique Ellena immortalizes elements, that were once alive, inspired by ancient painting, in the fascinating setting of the Villa Medicis (Roma).

The series Natures Mortes, realized in 2008 at the Villa Medicis, confronts us with images of animals that life has left (fish, octopus, birds) or some fruits or dishes. Photographed in a simple environment, the images present the sobriety that characterizes the whole work of Véronique Ellena.

Each photograph invites meditation, especially through the symbolic significance of these bodies and substances that were among the essential components of ancient painting. It is a work on the complex nature of things: at once fragile and powerful, tactile and repulsive, deadly and luminous. These photographs, made on large-format silver gelatin prints, are imbued with this unique place that is Villa Medicis.