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Elise Blair Bagnoli is a twenty- five year old American-Italian artist. Growing up in rural Ohio, Elise attended The Ohio State University, receiving her Bachelors in Fine Art in 2020. In the middle of the pandemic, Elise moved to Chicago to take part in The School of the Art Institute of Chicago's (SAIC) Post-Baccalaureate program, later went obtaining her MFA from SAIC in 2023.

 

Elise is extremely proud of her heritage and family. As a child, Elise spent significant time with family in Giulianova, exploring her interest in storytelling, antiquity and having fun. This period of her early life was of great influence, later obtaining Italian citizenship in 2021. In July of 2023, Elise was able to travel to Naples Italy and live in the countryside in a small town named Fusaro she lived in isolation and worked on developing a lexicon of language. This passion for art was inspired at a young age, receiving lessons from her Grandfather, artist Walter "Fred" Von Gruenigen, as a child, and attending programs at The Cleveland Institute of Art.

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Elise Bagnoli views her work as cathartic release- using surrealist language and metaphor to further explore themes about identity, esotericism, girlhood and realm between the physical and non-physical worlds. Elise views herself as a storyteller and an identifier of patterns. Constantly making attempts to identify the invisible thread that unites all things, trying to gain access to the synchronicities that bind us.