Born 1971 in Hamburg, Staatliche Akademie der Bildenden Künste Stuttgart, painting with Peter Chevalier from 1993 to
1999; Art and Intermedia Design with Sotorius Michou, Stuttgart Art Academy 1999 to 2001; Academy Prize of the Stuttgart Art Academy for Painting 1999; various exhibitions and projects.
"Ellen Semen's paintings are based on the dialectic of innocence and horror. They juxtapose the harmless with the horrific, seemingly without comment.
Alienation in the form of artificial manga figures designed according to market-economy criteria stands in direct contrast to
realism in the form of collaged or realistically reproduced images from photo reportages.
The starting point is semantically strongly coded signs, which are in turn combined in an alienated way and placed in absurd contexts. The collaged figure from a magazine stands on an equal footing with botanical depictions and free painterly compositions that create new units from the set pieces.
The incomprehensible, which defies all logic, creeps into everyday perception and undermines everything that appears clear, beautiful and normal on the surface.
The artificial staging suddenly tips over into the terrible, the naive into the catastrophic."
(Iris Meder)
Pictures by Ellen Semen can be seen in the exhibition "Böse Blume" from March 10 to April 9 in the Betonsalon in the Museumsquartier.
See also: www.ellen-semen.de