BIO

Elia Ardenne makes abstract paintings in which images emerge, fracture and re-form through repeated processes of layering, erasure, scraping and drawing. Bodily and organic forms surface within worked passages of paint, only to be interrupted, obscured or absorbed back into the surrounding image. The paintings remain suspended between recognition and abstraction, allowing forms to become suggestive without settling into fixed subjects.

Ardenne’s work is concerned with instability - of image, surface and form. Controlled structures are unsettled by more provisional and physical marks, while earlier decisions remain visible as stains, abrasions and accumulated layers. The body operates as a recurring register within this language: boundaries become porous, forms appear contained and then dispersed, and fragments can shift between bodily presence and material trace.

Through this continual process of construction and disruption, painting becomes a site of revision rather than resolution. Ardenne is interested in the point at which an image begins to cohere, and in keeping that moment open before meaning becomes fixed.

Ardenne has exhibited at Central Saint Martins, Lewisham Arthouse and the London Art Fair. Solo exhibitions have taken place at Art Jericho and Cornerstone Arts Centre, Oxfordshire. Her work is held in the University of the Arts London Collection.