This will be the first major solo presentation of work in London by Dutch photographer Hellen van Meene since 1999. Known for her intimate fictional portraiture of adolescent girls and androgynous boys, which blur the line between fact and fiction, Pump House Gallery has commissioned van Meene to make new works in London, which will be shown alongside recent works made in Japan, Russia, Germany, Latvia and Holland.
In recent years, van Meene has increasingly moved from working with familiar models in her hometown in Holland, to working overseas and spontaneously with strangers. She does not see her work as portraiture but as creating a mood and exploring “adolescent situations and attitudes, which represent the type of ‘normality’ we don’t usually share with others, but keep to ourselves” (the artist). She is drawn to what has been termed ‘eccentric but captivating detail’; light falling on the hairs on an arm, a bruise or hair tangled in branches.
Kindly supported by Arts Council England, Mondriaan Foundation, Royal Netherlands Embassy and Sadie Coles HQ.