Elisa De Montis was born in January 1993 in Turin. Her artistic journey began with her move to Spain (1914-19), initially developing through photography, where she immediately developed a passion for photo manipulation, drawing digitally on shots and creating collages using different frame elements to create surreal settings and sculptural effects.
After receiving several awards, he decided to temporarily return to Italy, where he furthered his self-taught drawing studies. Meanwhile, he developed a passion for poetry and literature, which in 1924 helped him create his first oil painting, " The Seven Principalities ," a painting that combines his interest in symbolic expression with religious themes. De Montis still produces oil paintings in his home studio, continuing his self-taught studies.
Among the major classical artists who influenced his work are Khnopff , Max Ernst , Bosch , Burne-Jones , Simberg , De Chirico , Khalo , Dalà , and Kubin, with a particular predilection for El Greco . Surrealism immediately became a source of great application for the artist, who, however, did not feel completely at home in his own works. His language was more focused on the great flow of symbolism, which, over the years, was gradually refined to adapt to his individuality.
In his early symbolic journey, he approached the narration of his own tormented and volatile self through the poses of the bodies he portrayed—especially through hand gestures—and biblical allegories. The need for redemption and inner solitude are the main meanings that emerge from his early works, such as " The Scarab, " " And This Is the Animal That Isn't There ," and " No Life Lasts as Long as Death ." These inner urges are underscored by some of the titles he chose for his works, drawn from verses of poems by authors such as José Mendonca and R.M. Rilke .
Subsequently, she began to explore a renewed vision of women in modern times. This latter theme has become a major part of her long-term pictorial ideologies. Her work is currently focused on freeing women from their martyr role, instead portraying them as figures with a mythological edge. De Montis's compositions incorporate floral and vegetal elements as an inevitable link between human nature and the surrounding world, between women as generators of life and Mother Nature, creators of worlds. The focus is always on maintaining a balance between what truly surrounds man and what, instead, arises from the darkness of the soul. De Montis's works stage a veritable psychological theater, where social construction clashes with the spontaneity of feelings.
In this liminal space, the artist explores the human attempt to control internal chaos, transforming the canvas into a place of reflection and self-discovery, an often dual self—as in " Se Io Esisto ." Giving voice to her social and artistic urgency, she perceives painting as a tool for decoding the world. Her work invites the viewer on a visual journey that celebrates the beauty of the wild and the depth of the invisible bonds that unite the individual to the universe.
