Portrait

Artist Statement

In her practice, Elise approaches memory as a continuing act of creation – a dynamic, evolving process whereby moments are revisited and reinterpreted on the page. Her darkroom is where the physicality of photography, memory and self-representation meet. She uses analogue processes to foreground the materiality of an image. Grain, texture and rough brush strokes evoke the tangible traces of time, opening up a space for contemplation beyond the figurative.

At the heart of Elise’s autobiographical practice lies the sensuous potentiality of solitude. Time spent alone becomes a vibrant well of possibility. Solitude manifests itself in the tensions between absence and presence, between light and dark, between the hidden, the visible and the implied. Elise’s work feels imbued with a sense of undefined yearning, wherein the pleasure lies not so much in obtaining what is out of reach, but in the journey towards it.

Vita

Elise Wouters is a Belgian artist, based between London, Athens and Brussels. After obtaining her Master’s degree in Film & English Literature from King’s College London, she worked at BBC Worldwide before focussing on her art practice.

Her photobook ‘Voglia’ was published by 89books as part of a two-week residency in Sicily, and was featured at Unseen Amsterdam and Polycopies. The book explores the ways in which self and place influence and shape one another. In her newsletter ‘BLUE PRINTS’, Elise studies the intersection between writing and photography, continuing her academic interest in Barthes, Sebald and Duras.

Her photography has been featured in Huck Magazine, Photo Vogue, Playboy, Others Magazine and The Independent, and has been part of group exhibitions in Paris, Athens, Bristol and London. She was the first artist-in-residence at Mona Athens in the summer of 2025, and was selected as a Fresh Eyes 2025 talent by GUP Magazine.