Elena Atena Simionescu graduated from the Ion Andreescu Institute of Fine Arts in Cluj-Napoca in 1985, majoring in Graphics, and she currently teaches graphics-related subjects at the Faculty of Visual Arts and Design from UNAGE Iași. In 2006 she earned a doctorate in humanities, aesthetics, with the thesis Gérard Genette, from a restricted ontology to a relativist subjectivist aesthetics and in 2016 she became a doctor in visual arts with the thesis Relief printing, implications on the evolution of civilization. She was Dean of the Faculty of Visual Arts and Design between 2008 and 2012. During 2012-2020 she was the Rector of UNAGE, and in 2020 she became President of the Senate of UNAGE Iași. Since 2018, she has been a PhD supervisor at the Doctoral School of Visual Arts. Her activity of artistic creation and research is focused on analyzing and expanding on experimental engraving, illustration and construction of the graphic character as well as on their interference with the field of visual arts. She participated in numerous national and international exhibitions and exhibited works in national and international museums and galleries.
She received a series of distinctions confirming the quality of her professional involvement in graphics, including: Jawk II Award, Kyoto International Woodprint in Japan 2007; the Award of the Society of Art Collectors from Romania, 2011, the Iosif Iser International Contemporary Engraving Biennale, Ploieşti; Prize of the Public of Rignac (Aveyron) – Triennale Européenne de l’Estampe Contemporaine, France, 2013; the second prize for visual arts awarded by the French magazine Levure Litteraire, 2014; 2017, the Romanian UAP Award for graphics – awarded for the artistic activity in 2016, respectively the Mater Materia Exhibition; the Order of Cultural Merit in the Rank of Knight, awarded by the President of Romania in 2019; Honorary Diploma of the Ministry of Education and Research from the Republic of Moldova at the 6th International Engraving Biennale, Chisinau, Rep. of Moldova, 2021.