Sparkling and zealous – a concentration of colour, energy and courtesy – the illustrator Elena Xausa has left us. His friend Matteo Cibic remembers her

What came out of the pen of Elena Xausa, the Venetian illustrator who passed away yesterday, still very young, it was very colorful, unsettling, but also immediate and recognizable.

Born in 1984 in Marostica, after studying industrial design at the Iuav, and working in Berlin, Milan and New York , Elena Xausa had established herself internationally, gaining an audience of fond of his fresh and synthetic, pop and vibrant, ironic and captivating style.

For those who knew her, Elena leaves the memory of a crystalline creativity, of an'inexhaustible energy and a calm kindness, of other times.

Collaborator for international companies and publications such as The New Yorker, The New York Times, New York Mag, Financial Times, Le Monde, Die Zeit, Monocle, Rolling Stone, for Interni he had designed the cover of the May 2019 issue.

Do you remember her friend Matteo Cibi.

Elena taught us to look at reality through her special lenses, through which the world was tinged with saturated colors and ironic and ingenious perspectives. From the pages of magazines, from billboards, from Instagram feeds, pictures of her instilled hope even on days and times when it didn't seem like there was much left to draw upon. With the same colorful and optimistic approach, she faced even the most difficult moments of her life and her illness with an open heart and with a determination full of grace. Elena for me was like Giacomo di Cristallo, the character in Gianni Rodari's fairy tale: transparent, kind, capable of infecting everyone around her with her personality. You could see yourself in her.

 

Read also: Elena Xausa's solo show Coming Home in BassanoBassano del Grappa