Elena Ploetz

Elena Plötz is a Russian‑born artist with Ukranian roots currently based in Germany. She grew up in a closed city that remains inaccessible to this day, an environment that shaped her early understanding of isolation and the desire for openness. Her move to Europe marked a profound personal transition, accompanied by both opportunity and loss.

Alongside her artistic practice, she works with refugees and unemployed individuals, engaging daily with diverse cultures and life stories.

These experiences influence her work, which explores themes of identity, displacement, and the quiet emotional spaces between past and present.

Working primarily in drawing and mixed media, she creates her artworks after her professional workday. This rhythm gives her practice an intimate, reflective quality, allowing her to translate lived experience into visual form

An art school in my youth. Education in languages and teaching them. A long career in interpreting and translation. Exhibiting artist since 2004. Since February 2022 actively engaged in refugee help, teaching German to Ukrainian refugees. Since March 2024 working full-time as a job coach helping welfare recipients to enter the primary work market, employed by Ingeus in Cologne. I gave up actively pursuing my art career in favour of this meaningful job.

September 2010 "HanseArt" - Hamburg, Germany
March 2013 - Migration, Castellon, Spain
May - November 2013 - Duo exhibition in BADK offices, Cologne, Germany
September 2013 - MOMENTUM Art show, Cologne, Germany
October 2013 - "Out of the Box", Berlin, Germany
March 2014 - "Spring Awakening", Atelie Abstrakt, Berlin, Germany
March 2014 - "Wild Thing", Galerie DISPLAY, Cologne, Germany
September 2014 - Duo exhibition at th4 German-Spanish Cultural Center, Cologne
October 2014 - Group exhibition in Atelier 24, Bergisch Gladbach
March 2015 - Group exhibition "Tatort Kunst" in Alte Feuerwache, Cologne
November 2015 - Group exhibition "Mal so, mal anders" in Kunsthalle LohmArt
January 2016, galerie luisa sassen, Cologne, "unterschiedliche WELTEN", group exhibition
March 2016, galerie Kunstmeile, Cologne, "QUATSCH", duo exhibition
August 2016, galerie "Art Cafe", Cologne
September 2016, ArtLokal, Windeck, Rhein-Sieg Art Fair
April 2017 Solo exhibition "Ich, herum" Galerie Kunst Meile Buchforst Cologne
April 2018 Solo exhibition "Fassade" Galerie Kunst Meile Buchforst Cologne
May 2019 Solo exhibition "Jeden Tag ist Muttertag", Galerie Kunst Meile Buchforst Cologne
September 2021 Group Exhibition "ArtLokal" in Windeck, Kabelmetal, Germany
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