Elisa Cantarelli Italian, b. 1981

Elisa Cantarelli (1981) is from Salsomaggiore Terme, Italy.

She was a lively and creative child. Her primary school teacher preferred to teach applied art instead of literature or history, and this was probably her first Art influence. At 9 she discovered basketball and fell in love with this wonderful sport. At 15, she attended the Art Institute in Parma and, at the same time, she was selected to play in the strongest team in the city. Basketball becomes a professional commitment and takes up most of her free time. Despite this, Elisa manages to find time and energy for the study. She joined an Art high school in Parma and then the Academy of Fine Arts in Bologna in 2001. The Professor Claudio Rosi Degli Esposti, her tutor and mentor, helped to bring out her best, supporting and encouraging her. 

It was Spring 2004 when she started to drop some dots on a photocopied image of her eye and she never stopped since: "dotting" was born. After her BA in Fine Arts and her winning the National Prize of Arts (Decoration), her work was exhibited at the Bologna Art Fair 2007, a key moment in her life. From that moment, she started working with galleries both in Italy and Tokyo. In 2009 she moved to London where she lives and works.

"Dotting" is the name of the technique that distinguishes her works and her research of new subjects is constantly evolving. Elisa's desire is to always create something new by combining his "dots" with other media and supports (fabric, wood, plastic, metals). Passion and positive attitude on the one hand, competition and discipline learned on the basketball courts on the other, are impressed in her personality and works.