Van Elder was born in Brussels, Belgium. She graduated from UCL, Belgium and received her MFA in Painting in 2003 from California College of the Arts, San Francisco.
Van Elder’s work has been included in exhibitions in California (San Jose ICA, Triton Museum, SFMOMA Artists Gallery, Root Division, Oakland Art Gallery, Berkeley Art Center, Ampersand, Southern Exposure, College of Marin, Dominican University, Marin MOCA, Headlands CFA, etc…), New York, Utah, Tokyo and was recently part of the Rtbf/Canvas La Collection national exhibition at the Musée des Beaux Arts in Brussels. She has also been a resident at the Headlands Center for the Arts in Sausalito, (where she was a Tournesol Award finalist).
Her work has been featured in New American Paintings and Studio Visit magazine.
She currently lives and works between Brussels and Northern California.