Ellen Semen was born in Hamburg in 1971. She studied painting at the State Academy of Fine Arts in Stuttgart (1992-2001) under Prof. Peter Chevalier (1996-1999), at the Surikov Institute in Moscow (1998), at the École des Beaux-Arts in Marseille (1999) and art and intermedia design under Sotorius Michou in Stuttgart (1999-2001).
In 1999 Semen received the Academy Prize of the Stuttgart Art Academy for Painting and the Marseille Scholarship (Franco-German Youth Organization). 1998 the Moscow Scholarship (Künstlerweg e.V.).
Since 1996, numerous solo and group exhibitions in Croatia, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Germany, Austria and Switzerland.
The painter and draughtswoman with Croatian roots surprised with images of longing for a conflict-free world. The ostensibly charming paintings transport us to an unembellished reality in which unexpected pictorial elements repeatedly enter the pictorial space. They challenge the viewer and put them to the test. The supposedly beautiful and innocent is infiltrated by the surprising and unpleasant. The harmless mingles with the horrific. Ultimately, the rich, luminous tones that create a positive and optimistic impression are reconciling. Ellen Semen says: "My works are designed to be dark, but light is desired. That's why my images of longing stand for a conflict-free world."