HELLEN VAN MEENE – THE DISSOLVE
2024-03-25One of the most influential international photographers of her generation, Hellen van Meene is known for her intimate color portraits of adolescent girls and young women inspired by traditions of classical painting.
Van Meene’s subjects are often caught in dreamlike states or otherworldly situations. In one, a bride stands calmly as the train of her wedding dress ignites in a semi-circle of flames. In another, a sitter cradles a fish like a baby, and in another, butterflies carefully position themselves on the subject’s face, neck, and chest. One young woman immersed in a body of water is surrounded by flowers while fully dressed, recalling Shakespeare’s Ophelia. Van Meene’s subjects appear detached and unflummoxed about their unusual situations, absorbing the ambiguity of being at the brink of adulthood, while caught in the liminal space between childhood and womanhood.
Opposite – Untitled #534, 2021
Exhibition runs through to March 30th, 2024
Yancey Richardson Gallery
525 West 22nd Avenue
New York
NY 10011
