Francesca Valori, known professionally as Etre, is an Italian visual artist whose practice unfolds across photography, digital art, video art, and visual languages rooted in Surrealism and Metaphysical Art. Her work explores the threshold between photographic image and constructed figuration, giving rise to suspended and deeply symbolic compositions.
Born in Rome in 1969, she graduated in Photography from the Istituto Europeo di Design (IED) in Rome and earned a degree in Educational and Psychological Studies from LUMSA University. These two paths converge in a visual research in which perception, memory, and the construction of identity are constantly intertwined.
Photography represents the original matrix of her gaze and progressively evolves toward increasingly radical practices of digital manipulation, ultimately leading to digital painting. In this process, the image becomes an autonomous space of visual elaboration.
Portraiture, still life, and the construction of carefully orchestrated visual scenes constitute the core of her practice. Through an essential visual language, influenced by Metaphysical Art, Surrealism, and minimalist research, she creates compositions in which objects, figures, geometric elements, and symbols coexist in suspended and evocative equilibria. Light, form, and matter become instruments of perceptual and psychological investigation.
Influenced by cinema, fashion, Surrealism, and Minimalism, Etre constructs a hybrid visual language that investigates the relationship between image, presence and absence, reality and mental construction.
Active since the 1990s in the field of digital experimentation, she anticipated the use of tools and languages now associated with New Media Art, while consistently maintaining a rigorous approach to image-making. Over time, her practice has expanded into video, presented in international contexts across Europe, the Americas, and the Middle East.
Her work has received international recognition, including the Gold Medal in the Illustrative Portrait category at the World Photographic Cup, an international competition dedicated to professional photographers. Through this achievement, she became a member of the Italian National Photography Team, representing Italy internationally.
Her works have been featured in art publications and international editorial collections. Since 2024, her practice has also entered the international auction market, with listings on specialized platforms such as Artprice and Arsvalue.
