Ornela Vorpsi was born in Tirana, Albania during the time of the most difficult communism known in the Eastern countries. Since her earliest youth she has been invested in painting, literature, and philosophy. She studied Beaux Arts in Tirana, following the ideology of the time: socialist realism. In 1991, she left Albania and studied at the school of Beaux Arts Brera-Milan. She finished her studies in 1997 a Paris VIII with a thesis in philosophy.  Vorpsi is an artist who uses the languages of photography, painting, and writing. She has   shown her work at Paris-Photo and the Louvre and has worked with Harold Szeemann, published a monograph with the Swiss publisher Scalo, Walter Keller. She has also collaborated with Matt Colishaw and Philip Cramer for the book Vetri Rosa (Take Five Editions). She has exhibited her work for many years at the Genevan gallery Analix Forever. In 2016, she participated in the Venice Biennale in the Albanian pavilion. 

Vorpsi writes in Albanian, Italian and French. She chose to write in a foreign language, in languages stripped of her childhood. Her books have been translated into 22 languages. She has won prestigious literary awards including Grinzane Cavour, the Viareggio Prize, the Mediterranean prize of high school students and many more. She has received notable fellowships including a DAAD fellowship from the German Academy in Berlin, a residency at the Villa Kujoyama in Japan and a residency at La Cité des arts in Paris.