Italian Illustrator Elena Xausa Dies at 38

Elena Xausa, the acclaimed Italian illustrator known for her crisp, vibrant graphic style, has died after a long battle with a rare disease. Born in 1984 in the Veneto region, she studied and taught at Università Iuav di Venezia and lived in Venice, Berlin, Milan, New York, and Marostica. Her work appeared in The New Yorker, The New York Times, New York Mag, Die Zeit, Monocle, and Rolling Stone. In 2021, she had a major solo exhibition at Galleria Civica di Bassano del Grappa, curated by Melania Gazzotti, covering her first decade of career. She also designed the cover for Artribune magazine #63 in 2021. Xausa participated in the Illustri festival in 2022 at Basilica Palladiana in Vicenza. She was a resident at Fondazione Bevilacqua La Masa in Venice and exhibited at Stazione Leopolda in Florence and Triennale di Milano. Colleagues and friends, including illustrator Ale Giorgini, remembered her as a visionary, energetic, and generous artist. The Treviso Comic Book Festival, where she was a guest, called her a fundamental and germinal illustrator.