Viona ielegems is a Belgian visual artist. 

She was born in 1982 in Antwerp.

 

Her early photographic work is a dark, elegant and melancholic reaction to the fast and commercially driven society of the 21 century where she didn't feel she belonged. Her work is inspired by the gothic novels, poems and painters of the 19th century romantic movement. 

Ielegems work has a classic aesthetic and features her muses in otherworldly, historically or ethnic-inspired gowns and headdresses. 

Sometimes set in a minimalistic misty studio, sometimes set in nature or a historic building, she turns her female models into mysterious characters from a forgotten legend or an old storybook and lets them beckon the viewer to escape with them into another realm.

She extended this realm to carefully created, conceptual events, where her guests joined her to escape the world as we know it for just one night.

​

In 2015 she went through a phase of redemption and had to rediscover her artistic identity. She created a series of minimalistic, monochrome full body self-portraits that resulted in the solo show “Kult!” Only wearing a ritual mask or headdress, this series of artwork emanates both her powerful and fragile side. 

 

In 2019 she came out with the solo show “Wunderkammer”, a series of over 50 still life photographic artworks featuring common and exotic species of taxidermy objects hidden in the vast archives of a German natural history museum. She set up her studio and worked for 2 years in the solitude of those archives to create the series. 

 

Ielegems is a true believer in the sacred, creative power of women. She does not aim to communicate social or political criticism through her artworks. She believes in the healing and enchanting power of beauty. Even when obscure, a bit morbid and melancholic, above all, her work is always feminine, elegant and refined.

 

She currently works on a series of paintings with dark ethnic and ritualistic influences. She uses techniques of intuitive creation to realise her paintings.

​