Elsa Egon — Contemporary Art Curator Magazine

May 2

May 2 Elsa Egon

Biography

Elsa Egon is the pseudonym. She was born in Naples, Italy, in 1981. After she graduated from architect school, she moved to France in 2010.
Self-taught artist, she was used to working with different materials and technics. With the Covid crisis, she has started to make only portraits.
After a first solo exhibition in Naples in 2008, she was a finalist of the 2017 award 44 ideas for viadellafucina16 by a committee of scientists.
She was also a finalist for the Art Prize CBM, which led to an exhibition in Turin and then at Galerie Českých centre, Prague, in 2018. The online curator, Madja Edelstein-Gomez, selected her work for Les Recombinants Exposition International presented for the first time at Art O Rama in 2017. She continues to present her work participating in calls for applications, or exhibitions like Paratissima 15 Multiversity in Turin, Salon d’Automne in Paris, and ITSLIQUID International Art Fair 2020, Venice.

Artist Statement

I grew up in Naples in the South of Italy, and I started painting at 17. I had been exploring several types of media in abstract painting before the pandemic started. I used to work mainly with recovered materials, paper, and concrete. Over the past few months, I have gradually moved to figurative and oil painting work, finally brave enough to confront myself with painting. At the same time, I’ve banned the sole need to externalize my emotions, and now I try to go towards others.
I work on very coarse canvas without preparation to keep its texture. Starting with a photo, I make the figure. In the end, the subjects are surrounded by colours, and only some elements stay around them.
I believe it is essential to understand and represent the sense of solitude connected to this time we are all living.
Now I feel my work is much closer to people and communicates with them much more effectively.

What first prompted you to think of becoming an artist?

The first time that I thought I wanted to be an artist, I was a child. I remember all things about this moment. Then I made architecture study in Italy, and engineer study in France. Today I just made art, and never I have been so happy. But to do just art was the most complex and more straightforward decision in my life.

What kind of an artist do you ultimately see yourself?

I hope to have the possibility to collaborate with very important art curators, critics and other artists. I'd like to be represented by an art gallery and be exposed to influential Fairs, and exhibitions.

What are you hoping to communicate to the viewer through your work?

Mostly, I hope to be capable of communicating positive emotions. However, my painting isn't always light, and in that case, I try to exorcise the pain. With portraits, I like to communicate the capabilities of the persons to keep on, always. With the title I attempt to lead to the significant, but finally, the magic of art, it's that you can't have any control. When the painting is done, sometimes I may feel emotions like it isn't mine!I hope that the viewer may be thrilled. I don't know how and why. It just appears.

Can you explain the process of creating your work?

Generally, I think about someone, and I ask him if it's possible to depict in a painting. I chose the format of the painting and I sketch to verify the actual space on the canvas. When I start to paint it is still like a sketch. I work on a thick canvas without preparation, so it may be the latest when I made the first sign! I work on the body, and the other mainly shapes, the face, it's often the newest part with the hands! I'm always afraid at this point! I like to work with a small range array of colour for each painting.

What is your favourite part of the creative process?

For me, it's when you can recognize the signs after some tries. It's like a disorder that finds its harmony. When I see that the face can communicate about the person's attitude, it's work. I remember the first time that I painted the eyes open. I was impressed, I can't stop laughing.

Can you give us an insight into current projects and inspiration, or what we can look forward to from you in the near future?

At the moment I'm collaborating with ITSLIQUID Group for one exhibition in London. Soon, the final exhibition of the LAB18 Prize in Venice. Artist Talk Magazine will publish one painting in his next issue. I'm waiting for a reply about an artist residence in Paris. And many other calls! I have started to look for a gallery representation.

Website http://www.elsaegon.fr

Instagram https://www.instagram.com/elsaegon/