Ingrid Deuss Gallery presents a solo exhibition of the Dutch artist Julie Van der Vaart

Ingrid Deuss Gallery is presenting a solo exhibition of the Dutch artist Julie Van der Vaart (°1988, Maastricht). The human body is, in addition to landscapes, the subject that recurs constantly in the work of Julie van der Vaart. Her photographic archive contains innumerabe monochrome series of nudes and romantic vistas, from which she can continually compile new series. The exhibited series 'Beyond Time' is also presenting monochrome nudes. For this series, she manually processed her photos with chemicals to produce bodies that seem to dissolve into the cosmos, simultaneously appearing and disappearing. A photo is prosaically a record of the past, but now it remains eternally afloat in imaginary time.

The temporal dimension is playing a big part in her work. Inspired by theories of non-linear time, astrophysics and quantum mechanics, she has begun experimenting in the darkroom. Whether a photo was taken yesterday or two years ago is immaterial. She removes her portraits from the notions of time and place. The shown does not occur, nor can it be placed on a timeline. The photographed rises above itself because it is shrouded in silence. Van der Vaart shows a withdrawn and meditative world that carries the potential of the intimate and universal.

In the Instagram era where saturated colours reign, phones are cameras, and pictures tend to be bold and shiny, Julie Van der Vaart stands out from the crowd with disturbing but peaceful black and white analogue pictures, which are at the same time calm and angsty. In her opinion colour gives more information, whilst she prefers to try to reach the essence.

Julie van der Vaart

Julie van der Vaart was born in 1988 in Maastricht but currently lives in Belgium, where she combines teaching art with her photographic personal projects. After a Master in Fine-arts, Photography at the Media, Arts & Design-faculty Genk and a Master after Master program of Research in Art and Design at Sint Lucas Antwerp she did a one year residency at the Van Eyck Academy Maastricht. Here she focussed on the production of self published photobooks of which Beyond Time (2017) was her latest.

In 2011 Julie was awarded the golden lens at the 33rd International Photo-Festival in Knokke-Heist (BE); in 2014 she was shortlisted for the Gomma Photography Grant and in 2015 for the Sony World Photography Award. She has exhibited in various group exhibitions, both nationally and internationally, most recently being including in The Museum of Photography, Den Haag (NL) 2011; House for Comtemporary Art Z33, Hasselt (BE) 2013; Power Station Gallery, London (UK) 2013; Museum M, Leuven (BE) 2014; Neue Galerie im Hohma.

Julie Van der Vaart
Beyond Time
2 February - 24 March 2018
Ingrid Deuss Gallery