Through a variety of media, Elena Damiani reinterprets documented geology, archaeology, and cartography, presenting natural elements and processes as incomplete and ambiguous spaces where multiple times and topographies merge. The artist collects found materials that have an embedded narrative, such as books, photographs, video footage, and public records. These materials are then stripped from their initial context and recomposed into works that point out the manipulability of cultural items and information. In her practice, Damiani constantly oscillates between past and present, science and narrative, from the factual to the invented and from the personal to the collective. 

Her major solo exhibitions include The shapes within, Almeida & Dale, São Paulo, Brazil (2025); Ensayos de lo solido, MAC Lima, Peru (2022); Great Circles, Galerie Nordenhake, Mexico City, Mexico (2019); As the dust unsettles, Revolver Galeria, Buenos Aires, Argentina (2019); In the Box: Elena Damiani’s Dust Tail, Chrysler Museum of Art, Norfolk, USA (2017); Testigos: Um catalogo de fragmentos, Museo Amparo, Puebla, (2016), and MUAC, Mexico City (2015); Excavaciones, Solo Projects ARCO, Madrid, Spain (2014); and All The Pieces Back Together, Selma Feriani Gallery, London, UK (2013).

Damiani has participated in several biennials, including Seoul Mediacity Biennale (2023); Bienal de Cuenca (2018); Gwangju Biennale (2016); Vienna Biennale (2015); Venice Biennale (2015); Bienal do Mercosul (2011 and 2013); She will also participate in the Aichi Triennale: A Time Between Ashes and Roses, Nagoya, Japan (2025). As well as group exhibitions at institutions such as MoMA, New York (2023); Museo de Arte Zapopan, Guadalajara (2022); DePaul Art Museum, Chicago (2020); Museu Coleção Berardo, Lisbon (2019); Museo Universitario Arte Contemporáneo, Mexico City (2015); Garage Museum of Contemporary Art, Moscow (2015); Museum of Contemporary Art Detroit (2015); Americas Society, New York (2014); Museo Tamayo, Mexico City (2013); Museo de Arte Contemporáneo, Lima (2013); Museo de Bellas Artes de Valencia (2009); Museo de Arte Moderno de Buenos Aires (2007); and Kunstmuseum Bonn (2006).

The artist has received awards from the Grants & Commissions Program, Cisneros Fontanals Art Foundation – CIFO, Miami (2016); Americas Society’s David Rockefeller Atrium, New York (2014); International Festival of Digital Arts and Cultures of Gran Canaria (2006) and 2nd Prize in the Franco-Peruvian Visual Arts Competition Pasaporte para un Artista (2006). Her work is present in important institutional collections such as MoMA, USA; Museo de Arte de Lima, Peru; Museo Tamayo, Mexico; Kamel Lazaar Foundation, Switzerland; Cisneros Fontanals Art Foundation, USA; Pérez Art Museum, USA; and Kadist Art Foundation, France and USA.