DIRECTORY 2025
Ellen De | Photography
Ellen De - Portrait
Ellen De is a visual artist who uses photography as her primary medium to explore the intersections of architecture, abstraction, and social critique. Her work reimagines brutalist structures as sculptural forms, detaching them from their historical and ideological contexts. By emphasizing form over function, light and shadow over utility, and fragmentary perspectives over complete depictions, Ellen's photographs transform iconic architectural symbols into evocative remnants of unrealized utopias.
Based in Barcelona, Ellen's artistic practice is shaped by her background in wood sculpture and audiovisual post-production, as well as her deep engagement with the conceptual potential of photography. Her images present a dystopian perspective on contemporary life, critiquing alienation, surveillance, and the erosion of revolutionary ideals under late capitalism.
Ellen De's work has been exhibited internationally in cities like New York, Tokyo, Brussels, and Berlin, as well as on online platforms such as the Metaverse. Key exhibitions include NFT NYC, Art Basel Miami, and Superchief Gallery. Her photography has been featured in publications like Futuro, Industrial Complexx, and Conceptual Photography. Currently, Ellen is curating the upcoming issue of The Laboratory Art Magazine, further exploring the interplay between art, architecture, and society through her distinctive visual language.
Ellen De's photographs do not depict urban or industrial landscapes but reflect a social state of mind. The artist abstracts architectural elements, presenting brutalist forms as sculptural pieces. These structures, iconic symbols of utopian ideals, are transformed into isolated shapes in space, where form takes precedence over meaning. Straight and curved lines, light, shadow, and chiaroscuro emphasize formal qualities over utilitarian ones. The incomplete outlines, serial compositions, mechanical rhythms, and unexpected perspectives evoke alienation and an oniric distortion, balancing between dream and nightmare.
AVOIDANCE (Spain), Photography, 2023 - Ellen De
At Dusk (Italy), Photography, 2022 - Ellen De
Rear Window (Spain), Photography, 2024 - Ellen De
Absent (Austria), Photography, 2022 - Ellen De
Future memories (Bosnia), Photography, 2021 - Ellen De
FAITH (Kyiv), Photography, 2022 - Ellen De
FAITH (Kyiv), Photography, 2022 - Ellen De
Neo.Brut 15 (Austria), Photography, 2021 - Ellen De
The space between moments (Germany), Photography, 2024 - Ellen De
I wish you were here (Serbia), Photography, 2021 - Ellen De
