B. 1976, Turin, Italy, where she lives and works as a visual artist.

She began her art studies at the R. Cottini Art Institute in Turin – Fine Arts section, after which she graduated in 2002 with an MFA in Painting from Albertina Academy of Fine Arts in Turin. Subsequently she continued to pursue and deepen her artistic research mainly through drawing and painting while employing a broad range of formats and over the recent years by developing site-specific installations.

The persistent quest focuses on the human figure and nature, both experienced as everlasting and tender forces in contrast and harmony with the transience of existence. It is based on a communicative need that transcends the individuality of the depicted subject which is however decontextualised and depicted with an alla prima painting in its essential form. The redefinition takes place until it reveals an anonymity that distinguishes it only as a physical presence for a perpetual and undefined period of time. The act of painting takes on the value of emotion and reveals that which is darker than matter.

In drawing, the research is essentially based on the human countenance and is characterised by the prevailing use of crayons applied with the finger pads. The work focuses on a depletion of the sign and a minimisation of the shapes by elaborating a symbolic abstraction. It focuses on the search for a personal language mediated by the intimate knowledge of drawing and the strong visceral depth experienced through the act of doing. Often, they are faded figures drawn with crayons and graphite on white paper. They disappear and re-emerge filtered by the unfathomable side of the creative nous. The overall artistic journey traces and highlights the main stages of this ongoing extensive research, production and in-depth experimentation carried out over the last 30 years:

On May 23^rd, the Vulnerabilia duo exhibition has been inaugurated together with Milena Sgambato at the Biffi Arte Gallery in Piacenza and in April she concluded the one-month residency at the Archivio Luigi Pericle in Ascona, CH. She has recently taken part in several group exhibitions among others: Had to do it at the Galerie Bessaud in Paris with a site-specific installation made up of both paintings and drawings; Visiones at the Cappella Nuova del Sacro Monte di Orta (Orta San Giulio) with a site-specific installation; Evasions artistiques at Galerie La Tour – Château d’Oupeye (Liège, Belgium); Art in Motion/1 – Nuove acquisizioni 2017-2024 at the Civica Raccolta del Disegno [Public Drawing Collection] of the MuSa (Museo di Salò); Multa Facies – Indagini sul volto – la gipsoteca di Antonietta Raphaël & le opere su carta di Mancini, Viani, Ziveri, de Canino, Fanelli e Filomena at the Aleandri Arte Moderna Gallery in Rome.

In 2023, the monographic work Elisa Filomena. Un atto creativo [A creative act] has been published, as well as the Elisa Filomena – Endeavour catalogue of the eponymous site-specific solo exhibition at the Hyperbien Galerie in Montreuil (Paris), following the Ecole d’Art residency. Moreover, the La camera delle solitarie installation has been exhibited at the Flashback Habitat in Turin: a site-specific experimentation set around the Le Solitarie (1923) 100yr old work of Mario Sironi, within the Sironi, disegnatore furioso – Opere e cenacoli 1901-1961 exhibition. The 2023 edition of the Contemporary Art Collectors Book – Volume I featured some of her works.

She has been the 2022 recipient of the grant awarded by the Pollock-Krasner Foundation of New York City and during the same year she has participated in the following events: the Painting Symposium hosted by the Lac o Le Mon Foundation in San Cesario di Lecce; in Landina, an en plein air painting experience in northern Italy; in the RWS Open group exhibition at the Bankside Gallery & Royal Watercolour Society in London. In 2021, the group exhibition entitled An ego of her own held at both New York City and Milan venues of the Kaufmann Repetto Gallery, featured a Filomena’s site-specific work at the NYC venue. Over the course of the same year, she inaugurated the Eden site-specific solo exhibition at Casa Vuota in Rome.

Over the last years, she took part in numerous events of live painting and scenographic installations for concerts. Filomena’s works have been featured internationally on the covers and pages of contemporary art magazines and books such as ArtMaze Magazine, The Drawer, Moth Magazine, Bagarres, London Paint Club and Artsin Square Magazine. She has been the recipient of several awards throughout her career including the Matteo Olivero Painting Prize and the Alida Epremian Scholarship, as well as of several national and international art contests: The Moth Prize, Prisma Art Prize, Exibart Prize, O.R.A. Prize, Cesare Pavese Prize and Combat Prize.

From 1997 onwards, both in Italy and abroad (Germany, France, Belgium, U.K., U.S.A.), numerous key galleries and museums such as the Tornielli Museum in Ameno, Kommunale Galerie in Mörfelden-Walldorf (Frankfurt), Affordable Art Fair in Milan, Cremona Art Fair, Giovanni Fattori Public Museum in Livorno, Sant’Agostino Museum in Genoa, Castello Visconteo Public Museum in Pavia, Fondazione Circolo dei Lettori in Turin and Venice Biennale International Art Exhibition – Piedmont Region, have widely featured Filomena’s works and events as well.

Some of her works belong to museums, foundations, public and private collections, both in Italy and abroad, among others: Fondazione Lac o Le Mon, San Cesario di Lecce; Civica Raccolta del Disegno [Public Drawing Collection], Salò Museum, Salò; Luigi Varoli Public Museum, Cotignola; Fondazione Giorgio Amendola, Turin; ArCoS Sannio Contemporary Art Museum, Benevento; Banca Popolare Valconca, Rimini; Collezione Permanente della Fondazione CRC, Cuneo.