Comic Arts Fest

Conference

Elene Usdin in Conversation with Philippe Labaune

Elene Usdin, Philippe Labaune

  • Elene Usdin

    Born in Paris, Elene Usdin is an author whose artistic practice spans drawing, painting, photography, and recently, comics. After graduating from the École Nationale Supérieure des Arts Décoratifs of Paris in 1998, she began her career as a scenic painter on the film Pola X by Léos Carax. Winner of the Picto Prize for Young Fashion Photographer in 2006, she published a collection of photography through Éditions Contrejour in 2013. In 2020, Wayne State University Press edited We are Woodbridge, a photographic collection of portraits of Detroit.

    She has collaborated with Compagnie DCA Decouflé, l’Opéra du Rhin, the Fondation Lafayette Anticipations, and most recently with the Théatre des Celestins de Lyon. Her photography has been exhibited in Detroit at the Museum of New Art in 2014, and at the Galerie Camille in 2018.

    She published her first graphic novel René.e aux Bois Dormants in September 2021 through Éditions Sarbacane, which received the Grand Prix de la Critique ACBD 2022, the Prix BD des Utopiales 2022, the Prix BD des librairies du Québec 2022, and the Prix du Récit Dessiné de La SCAM 2022. Her second graphic novel, Detroit Roma, co-written with Boni and published by Éditions Sabarcane in 2025, received the Prix France TV 2026. Since 2022, she has been regularly published in the magazine Métal Hurlant.

    Her drawings have been exhibited at the Philippe Labaune Gallery in New York in 2023 and in Brussels at MIMA, Millennium Iconoclast Museum of Art in 2024. In 2026, among other institutions, Musée de Bastia will exhibit her drawings and photography.

    In 2022, she was invited by the Institut Français of India for a residency in Bangalore, and in 2023, she had a residency at the Académie de France in Rome, Villa Medicis. Then in 2024, she had a residency at the Villa Formose Immersive to write a new Virtual Reality project.

  • The Society of Illustrators

    The Society of Illustrators, founded in 1901, is the oldest nonprofit organization in the United States dedicated to the art of illustration. Located on New York’s Upper East Side, the Society invites visitors to explore its historic Museum of Illustration, which features rotating exhibitions, a permanent collection, and engaging events throughout the year. Guests can also enjoy a drink in the historic bar beneath the famous Norman Rockwell painting.

     

Lead Image © Elene Usdin
Elene Usdin Headshot © Chloé Vollmer-Lo

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