The artist Ella Lugin was born in Switzerland, but spent her youth in Stuttgart and Munich. She trained as a dancer (modern dance and ballet) at state dance schools. Afterwards she worked in show business and at the same time she started painting under her artist name 'Maithano'. Despite many exhibitions as a painter and a permanent exhibition at the Muffathalle culture and concert hall in Munich since the 1980s, she stopped painting after her last exhibition at the well-known gallery Wehrli in Zurich. After 15 years of fine art painting in the year 2000, Ella changed her artist name to Ella Lugin (which is closer to her name of origin) and began to explore digital photography. Digital photography opened up new worlds for the artist and was more promising for the artist to express herself.

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In July 2020 Ella Lugin started in a further creative phase. Inspired by new developments in software for animating videos, the artist succeeds in creating video artworks through which she expresses the philosophical level of her perception. ​