Hellen van Meene
dal 1/2/2007 al 16/3/2007
Segnalato da
1/2/2007
Hellen van Meene
Yancey Richardson Gallery, New York
Solo exhibition
Solo exhibition
The Yancey Richardson Gallery is pleased to present
an exhibition of new photographs by Dutch
photographer Hellen van Meene.
Known
for
her
intimate, intense portraits of adolescent girls and
androgynous boys, this is van Meene’s first exhibition
in the United States since 2001.
These
recent portraits
are primarily the result of travels to Latvia, Russia,
London, Japan and Morocco between 2004 and 2006.
A survey of recent work by the artist is currently on view
at the Museum Folkwang, Essen, Germany and in
November 2006, Schirmer/Mosel published the
monograph New Work. In addition, van Meene is
featured in the exhibition Family Pictures, opening
February 2007 at the Guggenheim Museum, New
York.
Having previously worked with models she knew, van
Meene’s recent work was made with strangers,
primarily in their own environments: students at their
school in St. Petersburg, teenage mothers at home in
London, Tokyo youth on the street, and girls in a
village plaza in Morocco. Acknowledging the
transformative potential of photography, van Meene
has described her subjects as the raw material for her
own creations, stating in a 2002 interview for the
Museum of Contemporary Photography catalog, "I look
for a certain mood in which the girls almost figure as
actors. As a matter of fact, I treat my models as objects
which you can direct and guide."
The current
work is
less fictionalized and more direct than previously,
evidencing less of the performance quality of her
earlier portraits. The models are now placed against
flat planes of color in unadorned environments and
without props. The photographs are nonetheless filled
with closely observed details and subtle, expressive
gestures, many of which Van Meene has added or
directed. Intimately scaled (12 x 12 or 16 x 16 inches)
and pressed close to the picture plane, van Meene's
portraits invite and reward scrutiny at close
range.
Image: Untitled #266, Netherlands, 2006, 11 x 11 inch Chromogenic print
Edition of 10, Signed, titled, dated and editioned on verso
Yancey Richardson Gallery
535 West 22nd - New York
Opening hours: Tuesday thru Saturday, 10AM to 6PM.
Admission free