"Artfully Dressed: Women in the Art World", Volume I: Artists by The Weiss Gallery

ARTFULLY DRESSED Women in the Art World

Portraits by Carla van de Puttelaar

ARTFULLY DRESSED: Women in the Art World

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ARTFULLY DRESSED: Women in the Art World

Unless stated otherwise, copyright in this catalogue (including content and design) is owned by Carla van de Puttelaar and The Weiss Gallery. All images ÂŠ 2018 Carla van de Puttelaar You may not reproduce, adapt, modify, communicate to the public, reproduce or otherwise use any part of this catalogue without the express written permission from Carla van de Puttelaar and The Weiss Gallery. All rights reserved. 2

ARTFULLY DRESSED: Women in the Art World

ARTFULLY DRESSED

Women in the Art World Portraits by Carla van de Puttelaar

Volume I: Artists 5

ARTFULLY DRESSED: Women in the Art World

CONTENTS Acknowledgements 4 Introduction 8 Céline Bodin, 15 Phoebe Boswell, 17 Anna Boyiazis, 19 Lilias Buchanan, 21 Sabrina Collares, 23 Lotte Dale, 25 Roxana Halls, 27 Laura Hospes, 31 Marie-José Jongerius, 33 Miho Kajioka, 35 Jade van der Mark, 37 Hellen van Meene, 41 Sofie Muller, 43 Marie-Louise Plum, 45 Carla van de Puttelaar PhD, 47 Isabell Schulz, 51 Venus Veldhoen, 53 Tatiana Vinogradova, 55 Mirjana Vrbaški, 57 Debra Weiss, 61

ARTFULLY DRESSED: Women in the Art World

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS When Carla first showed me some of her photographs - portraits of her daughter - it was clear that she had a rare talent. I have always been interested in photography, and this project, combining as it does my passion for the human face and form, showcases Carlaâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s genius in dramatically capturing the personality of her sitters in a uniquely evocative way. It has been a pleasure to give Carla this opportunity to exhibit for the first time in London, and I am really excited at the prospect of bringing her work to a wider audience through this exhibition in my beautiful gallery. I would like to thank my exceptional team, Florrie and Charlie, for all the work they have put in to make it happen, and also my beloved wife Catherine for her enthusiasm and support for the project. Mark Weiss

I am so attached to this project that I cannot let it go. After this exhibition I will carry on working on it! It settled in my heart and in my bones. I am most grateful to all the women that participated and have given me their trust, and to the designers who graciously have lent me their exquisite creations and fabrics. But I could not have embarked on it with confidence without the brilliant Weiss Gallery Director Florence Evans, who has supported me, thinking along, and helping me in many ways throughout the project. Gallery manager Charlie Mackay has designed the catalogue so beautifully and was always available for help, and my partner Fred Meijer was always there to discuss my work and was my invaluable assistant when we were travelling. However, most of all I want to thank Mark and Catherine Weiss for inviting me to exhibit at The Weiss Gallery and for believing in my project. Carla van de Puttelaar PhD

ARTFULLY DRESSED: Women in the Art World

INTRODUCTION Being photographed by Carla is a liberating and revealing experience. From the moment I entered her studio, through to choosing a range of costumes – and personalities – to try on, I felt as if I had entered a parallel world. The black velvet backdrop, careful draping of fabrics and endless colours are inspired by her love for Van Dyck and his flamboyant ways of seeing and presenting his sitters. The studio feels as though it has its own sense of time, and a quiet focus. Without having a fixed idea in mind of the result, we both sensed when we had arrived at the ultimate portrait. Carla van de Puttelaar’s Artfu"y Dressed: Women in the Art World is an ongoing project celebrating the strength of women in the creative industries. Inspired by Old Master paintings, it presents us with over 65 portraits that act as sources of empowerment and as a reminder of the diversity and range of womanhood. Since mid-2017, she has been collaborating with sitters, working closely with them to present their unique personalities and characters. In seeking the magical moment of connection in which the sitter’s essence is captured in the portrait, the viewer is encouraged to look deep into the frame and consider the role of photography in re-shaping the view of women in the world. We are further welcomed into these worlds through short interviews with each sitter. Van de Puttelaar has a long connection with Foam after first showing work in a 2002 exhibition due to winning the Prix de Rome Basic Prize. Emphasising and acknowledging the power of women has been a consistent theme throughout her career. From sketching fellow classmates as a young girl to building this body of work presented here, Carla has used photography as a means of highlighting the beauty and force of women.

Marloes Krijnen, Director of Foam

ARTFULLY DRESSED: Women in the Art World

When The Weiss Gallery asked me in the Spring of 2017 whether I would like to exhibit my work there in 2018, I felt hugely honoured. The idea was to make new work for the occasion. The challenge for me was to create a project that would be inspired by Tudor portraiture, but at the same time firmly rooted in the present time, and with female portraits as the main topic, as women play the central role in my photographic work. As a teacher of art and as an art historian, I have encountered many more female students than male, which is not yet largely reflected in the positions in the art world, and women artists as a group are still less celebrated than their male counterparts. At the same time, I noticed that there are many women working in the art world and I wanted to celebrate them through my project. Letting them become more visible, both the promising, as well as the prominent, coming from various areas of the art world and from a variety of cultural backgrounds – women of various ages and in diﬀerent stages of their careers. I embarked with passion and energy on this new adventure and before I knew it, I was in the middle of a strong current pushing me forward. My network grew, more and more women participated and I realised that I had by far exceeded the sixty participants that I had envisioned for the exhibition! I have now photographed over 140 women, many that I previously had not met and several of whom have become friends. Many extraordinary women with a great passion for art. And while speaking with them I was amazed to hear what they had achieved and experienced, and therefore I thought it a good idea to include their biographies with the portraits in the online catalogue that The Weiss Gallery wanted to create for the exhibition, and to ask all of them the same six questions. Reading their answers, I became even more in awe of what they had achieved and how they expressed themselves. It made some things clearer to me, such as the inequality on more than one level – for instance I did not encounter many women of colour for example. This was voiced very aptly by one of the sitters, Eva Langret, as follows: ‘The struggle for gender equality in the arts, like in other professions, must be intersectional: it's also about race, about class, sexuality, disability...’ I got to enjoy and love my portrait project very much, and while working hard I also learned a lot, about photography and about portraiture in particular, but mainly from the women that I encountered, by talking to them and reading their answers. And then the portraits themselves, it has been a challenge and a pleasure to work on them, to be inspired, thinking, worrying, changing, each time to create something that would be special for that particular sitter, a collaboration, pushing boundaries, so I would come to a new work that would surprise me and my audience, all the time being anxious to see how the result would be received. One comment brilliantly expressed everything I have endeavoured to evoke in my audience: “The photographs are spectacular – theatrical and intimate, inte"igent and thought-provoking, strong and wistful, a" at the same time, marrying tradition with an edgy, forward looking twist.”

Carla van de Puttelaar PhD 9

ARTFULLY DRESSED: Women in the Art World

Explosions start with a little spark. That spark was the suggestion for Carla to produce something special for a show of her work at The Weiss Galley. A special portrait, perhaps, something to do with the art world? The initial question, ‘why don’t I do some portraits of women in the art world?’, was still muffled by lots of other activities. There was a PhD to be defended and a new book of photographic work to be published. But the idea was simple. In our combined networks there are quite a few women in the art world who could be approached as sitters. But once the initial explosion had stirred up the snow, it started a true avalanche, Carla style. The network provided sitters, the sitters suggested other sitters, and other sitters suggested other sitters. The network expanded and the project expanded. Soon, the limit of sixty sitters had to be abandoned and that number was only confined to the number of portraits to be shown at the exhibition. At the moment, the total is still growing and further shows may be forthcoming. Several of the portraits were shot in Carla’s Amsterdam studio; I was not very much involved in those. Carla’s ‘self-portrait’, however, was done in our living room, with Carla as art-director and me pressing the shutter at what appeared to be the right moment. But many of the sitters we visited, or at least photographed, away from home. We travel a lot, both for my art-historical work and for Carla’s photography, almost always together. Starting in the summer of 2017, Carla’s photo equipment and the black velvet cloth that serves as a background travelled with us, and every trip included at least a few portrait sessions. At some point I joked: ‘behind every woman in the art world there is a man with a black cloth, and that is me’. Several times we travelled especially for these shoots, setting up for a few days, also carrying a light-weight stand for the black background, as well as draperies and clothes, choosing a location hopefully with good light – even on a rainy or overcast day. Carla works with natural light only. The process of making these portraits what they eventually become is as far removed as can be from sitting in a passport photo booth. During the shoot, the photographer is continuously analyzing the situation and the sitter, observing all the details, as well as the composition as a whole, seizing opportunities when and where she can. Once the sitter has left, there may be a large array of images to choose from, but not always many options. After Carla had made a first selection, we often sat down to review the results, trying to decide which image or images worked best for this particular sitter. Then hours of painstaking editing of the photos on-screen would follow, adjusting some of the tones and contrasts, intensifying the black, and adding, or enhancing some details. Next, it is a matter of waiting for a sitter’s reaction, will she like or even love the image, recognise herself in it as Carla does? In addition to the artwork, there is an endless stream of emails and phone calls, first to arrange the shoot, then to procure a biography and answers to the six questions Carla asked each of the sitters, the results of which had to be reviewed and often edited or even translated… Watching Carla create, I am always amazed by the solutions she comes up with, seizing opportunities, and with her drive to make every single image into something special, to get the best out of her subject. And I truly believe that the visitors to this exhibition and those who view this catalogue will agree with me that once again, she has fully succeeded in doing so.

Fred G. Meijer PhD 10

ARTFULLY DRESSED: Women in the Art World

ARTISTS 13

ARTFULLY DRESSED: Women in the Art World

Céline Bodin Céline is a French photographer. She graduated with a photography BA from Gobelins, L’école de l’image in Paris, and in 2013 she completed a Photography MA at the London College of Communication. Her work revisits the genre of contemporary portraiture within the themes of identity and gender in the frame of western culture. As well as developing her own practice, Céline regularly writes about photography and occasionally works as a visiting tutor on photography workshops and courses. Céline also works alongside the two directors at Purdy Hicks Gallery, London. Could you tell us something about your role in the art world? In my personal practice I work within the genre of portrait photography, exploring its ability to define identity and gender in the frame of western culture and in response to its historical legacy within the arts. I also write articles and essays on photography for various publications and work as a visiting tutor in photography, while I’m involved part-time at Purdy Hicks Gallery in London, working alongside the two directors of the gallery. What did you enjoy about being a part of this project? Because I am a great admirer of Carla’s photography it is always fascinating to watch her direct her models, and see what catches her eye while she creates new images documenting women and their representation. Each photographer has their own rhythm, method and engagement with the model. I enjoy witnessing the grey area within which the photographer's participation adjusts to the model’s interpretation of the session. As a photographer who also works with in portraiture, it is interesting to be subjected to a position similar to the one I require from others. Do you have a favourite artist? I couldn’t name only one. I have many! Agnes Martin, Mark Rothko, Man Ray, August Sander, Bernhardt Prinz, Hannah Wilke, Jo Ann Callis, Bettina von Zwehl, Heinrich Kuhn, Jean Jacques Henner, Lucas Cranach, Holbein, Memling… quite a variety, and I could go on. What is your earliest memory involving art? My earliest, truly personal memory, would be that of watching Jean Cocteau’s ‘Beauty and the Beast’ over and over again, with great fascination every time. Memories involving photography came later, when as a teenager I started staging images with friends and family members, after my high school French teacher sparked an interest in the medium. Do you have any special thoughts about the position of women in the art world? I think now is a very interesting time for women in the art world, as there has been a constant rise in numbers of female artists, of all practices, since the art world has known its revolution. And yet, even after the age of feminist performances (which is still at work), there is nevertheless an everlasting space for a discussion on the novelty of the female view and the practices engaged with body representation. To me, women present a diﬀerent approach within the arts, in the way they scrutinise their own sensitivity and attitude, as well as their new freedom, it has something close to a raw analysis of the unconscious. I find it interesting the way Simone de Beauvoir looked down upon women artists who too clearly acknowledged inequalities between men and women in their work. Of course, it may have underlined a certain cry for help, but at the same time women have for so long been confined to their sexuality, while the male gaze has had such supremacy, that its present dissection in female work is inevitable, and it is essential to give voice to a de-sexualised approach, and renew the definition of beauty and physical identification. What are you wearing, and is there a story behind it?   I am wearing a Japanese Haori (short Kimono). I have always been fascinated by Japan and its traditional aesthetics, so when my boyfriend travelled there he brought it back as a present, since I had never been. The colour is celadon green. Celadon is my childhood nickname, so it is sort of my colour!

ARTFULLY DRESSED: Women in the Art World

Phoebe Boswell Phoebe lives and works in London. Born in Nairobi and brought up as an expatriate in the Middle East, she combines traditional draftswomanship and digital technology to create drawings, animations and installations. Boswell studied Painting at the Slade School of Art and 2D Animation at Central St Martins, London. She was nominated/shortlisted for the Art Foundation's Animation Fellowship was the first recipient of the Sky Academy Arts Scholarship, both in 2012, and has recently been awarded a Ford Foundation Fellowship 2018. She participated in the Gothenburg International Biennial of Contemporary Art 2015 and the Biennial of Moving Images 2016 at the Centre d'Art Contemporain in Geneva, and has exhibited at Art15, 1:54 London and New York, and galleries including Carroll / Fletcher Gallery, Kristin Hjellegjerde Gallery, The Fine Art Society, New Art Exchange, and Tiwani Contemporary, where she had her first solo exhibition in London in 2017. Dear Mr Shakespeare, her Guardian / British Council commissioned short film (which she wrote, performed, and animated) was nominated for Best International Short at Sundance 2017, she has been listed as an emerging UK filmmaker of note in Film London's Selected7 and awarded the Special Prize in the Future Generation Art Prize 2017, through which she exhibited her interactive installation Mutumia at the 57th Venice Biennale. Boswell is currently an artist-in-residence at Somerset House Studios in London and is represented in the US by Sapar Contemporary, where she will have her first US solo show in May 2018. Could you tell us something about your role in the art world? I'm a visual artist. I combine drawing with digital technologies to make immersive installations which communicate in layers and have multiple inroads. I'm hooked to the complexity and nuance of gendered, racial, and diasporic consciousness and want to find ways to house the wholeness of our narratives, narratives of belonging and not belonging, middle points and in-betweenness, stories that cannot be easily told in a static or singular language. What did you enjoy about being a part of this project? Celebrating women is always a pleasure. It's weird, being on that side of the camera, I'm not so used to it, but there was an ease and an intimacy sitting for Carla, and an understanding and honesty that existed perhaps because we were both women. And I was so intrigued by her use of natural light. Do you have a favourite artist? So many, and it fluctuates, so that is impossible to answer. At this exact moment, because I'm thinking of her new work at Hauser & Wirth and how it resonated with what I'm currently working on, Lorna Simpson. And Dineo Seshee Bopape, because she is phenomenal and I adore her. What is your earliest memory involving art? I have always drawn, I can't remember not drawing. My dad used to paint a little when I was a child, just casually, and one of my earliest memories is being so in awe of these watercolours he made, wondering if I'll ever be as good, and wanting to definitely be an artist. It's funny, I still get the exact same feeling when I look at those watercolours now... Do you have any special thoughts about the position of women in the art world? The art world has been white male dominated for so long it's maddening. But the work is being done, the battles being won, the gatekeepers are shifting, and I'm hopeful. The future of the art world is female, it's queer, it's trans, it's non-binary, it's black, it's brown, it's decentralised, it's not obsessed with the West, it's not able-bodied, it's empowered, it is ageless... and it's already beginning to look beautiful. What are you wearing, and is there a story behind it? I'm wearing a wax print jumpsuit by a Zanzibari designer called Kihaga. It was a gift from my sister for my birthday. Zanzibar is my peace place, and my sister is my person, so I wore it to give love to both.

Exhibited at The Weiss Ga"ery (16 - 31 May 2018)

ARTFULLY DRESSED: Women in the Art World

Anna Boyiazis Anna is an American documentary photographer based between Southern California – where she was born and raised by her family of Aegean Islanders – and East Africa. Her areas of focus include human rights, public health, and women and girls’ issues. Her exhibitions include the Taylor Wessing Photographic Portrait Prize 2017, National Portrait Gallery, London; #womenmatter Dysturb campaign against violence toward women, Preus Museum, Norway; and the Havana Biennial, Centro de Arte Contemporáneo Wifredo Lam, Cuba. She is recipient of both the City of Los Angeles (C.O.L.A.) Individual Artist Fellowship and the Eddie Adams Workshop XXV Los Angeles Times Assignment Award. Her work has been recognized by Arles Voies Oﬀ, American Society of Media Photographers, CENTER, Center for Cultural Innovation, FotoVisura, Médecins Sans Frontières, Photocrati Fund, Pictures of the Year International, Prix de la Photographie Paris, UNICEF, and World Press Photo. Anna earned an MFA from the Yale University School of Art and a BA from the UCLA School of the Arts and Architecture. Her involvement with photography deepened in 2006, inspiring a mid-career transition into photography. She spent the early years of her career designing a variety of publications – predominantly books – in close collaboration with international art and architecture organisations. Anna taught at both Art Center College of Design and the UCLA School of the Arts and Architecture, and served a teaching fellowship at the Yale University School of Art, as Head Designer at MOCA and as Visiting Artist at the American Academy in Rome. Her work is in the permanent collections of the AIGA Archives at the Denver Art Museum, the UCLA Arts Library Artists’ Book Collection, the Yale University Art + Architecture Library, and the Yale University Sterling Memorial Library Arts of the Book Collection. Could you tell us something about your role in the art world? As a documentary photographer, I view my work as an act of empathy. Going inside my subjects’ lives and entering their physical and emotional worlds has transformed and refined my ability to see. Through my photographs, I aim to elicit compassion and bring our shared humanity to the fore. What did you enjoy about being a part of this project? What I enjoyed most was getting to know the extraordinary Carla van de Puttelaar. Do you have a favourite artist? I’ve long admired the early drawings of Toba Khedoori – intricately executed on enormous swathes of wax-coated paper. Seeing Picassos in person will always make my heart skip a beat. Hieroglyphs, too. What is your earliest memory involving art? I remember being led into our junior high auditorium for an assembly, where black-and-white films were our initiation to the Holocaust. Stunned, I wondered why nobody had told us about this sooner. And more importantly, why hadn’t anyone done anything to stop it. I’ve never been able to get those images out of my head. They inspire me. Do you have any special thoughts about the position of women in the art world? It’s high time the inequity is balanced! What are you wearing, and is there a story behind it? The sleeveless blouse I chose to wear in my portrait nods to my current work in Africa, while feeling like a second-skin. I planned to wear it as a guest speaker at the World Press Photo Festival and still wish that I had. The weather did not cooperate, however, encouraging this Californian girl to bundle up.

ARTFULLY DRESSED: Women in the Art World

Lilias Buchanan Lilias is an artist, born in Dundee. She studied BA Illustration at Central Saint Martins, and a Diploma in Drawing at The Royal Drawing School, graduating in 2012. She currently lives and works in London. Could you tell us something about your role in the art world? I am a fine artist, primarily a painter and draftsman. What did you enjoy about being a part of this project? The silver sunlight touching skin. Do you have a favourite artist? So many. I always find this question impossible to answer as I feel like the answer changes all the time. At the moment, the artist that is in my mind most is Vermeer and his painting 'De Melkmeid'. I went to the Rijksmuseum recently to see it and stood for hours looking into the glowing blue tones. It is one of the most remarkable, beautiful paintings I've ever seen. What is your earliest memory involving art? When I try and look back into my earliest memories, it's hard to find the earliest one. I grew up in a very artistic household, as my dad is a painter and my mum an art historian. I do have a hazy early memory of my parents taking me and my two sisters to see the Ghent Altarpiece by Hubert and Jan Van Eyck. This may be the reason why I love the altarpiece so deeply today. At this moment, I am looking up at two postcards on my studio wall; one is of a singing choir of angels and the other the view from a room with a simple and elegant towel hanging by the window. Both are paintings from the back panels of the Ghent Altarpiece and can only be seen when the altarpiece is closed. Do you have any special thoughts about the position of women in the art world? My thoughts are that we, as artists, should always place our artistic practise at the centre of our lives. For me, I feel that the art we create is the heart keeping us alive. We must always be curious, always strive to capture the essence of this peculiar and magical world. Even when life seems at its darkest, the art we create will give us light. What are you wearing, and is there a story behind it? I came to Carla's shoot wearing what I call my Albrecht Durer coat. It was designed by Theatre De La Mode â&#x20AC;&#x201C; aka Christopher Kelly, and is actually my boyfriend's, and designed for a man â&#x20AC;&#x201C; but I love wearing it as the pockets are nice and big, large enough to fit all my pencils and paint brushes! I also tried on one of Carla's amazing 80s dresses which I loved for its Bronzino-esque folds and reflections.

ARTFULLY DRESSED: Women in the Art World

Sabrina Collares Sabrina was born in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. She is in her final year of Fine Art at Middlesex University in London. She works with a variety of mediums, such as drawing, painting and sculpture. Her practice is heavily inspired by the miscegenation, colonialism, and anthropology in Brazil as well as the problematisation around Eurocentrism, and issues involving identity. Her inspiration comes mainly from History, Philosophy, Politics, Cultural and Post-Colonial Studies. The work is generally presented inverting the tradition of Western paintings in a ceaseless cultural anthropophagic quest. Could you tell us something about your role in the art world? As a Brazilian female living in Europe for many years now, I understand the immense privilege that is to be an artist in crucial times like this, and for that reason it is impossible for me to distance my practice from the urgent discussion about the socio-political situation of my native country and the world. I also believe the role of every artist is to create spaces for discussion and hopefully engage people in reflecting upon the society we live in. As Nina Simone said: ‘How can you be an artist and NOT reflect the times? That to me is the definition of an artist.’ What did you enjoy about being a part of this project? I am so humbled to be part of it, especially with such an amazing artist as Carla. We met for the first time at TEFAF and she has always been a good friend and supporter of my work. The whole idea of portraying women who participate in the art scene (cultural production) is very interesting and inspiring. It is crucial for us as women to support each other and create more platforms for the proliferation of knowledge produced by other women. Do you have a favourite artist? Undoubtedly, Adriana Varejão. What is your earliest memory involving art? There are two paintings I saw in an Encyclopaedia in my home and I remember admiring them for countless hours as a child. ‘The Garden of Earthly Delights’ by Hieronymus Bosch and ‘Summer 1563’ by Giuseppe Arcimboldo. The incredible amount of details in both paintings really fascinated me, and perhaps this admiration nowadays is transmitted to my own practice which is immensely detailed and full of hidden symbols and meanings. I also remember drawing on the back of my father’s blueprints, and how he encouraged us to draw, something that has always been part of me. Do you have any special thoughts about the position of women in the art world? I think that we as women have an important role in the creation of culture and knowledge, to help understand that the erasure of female narratives throughout history was a cruel yet eﬃcient way to prevent female agendas from being brought to light. I have also noticed that in the academic environment, female intellectual production is barely propagated, so we rare left reading about our lives and the world through a male gaze. As an Intersectional Feminist, it fascinates me to learn about the cultural production of all women, especially the ones who are historically in socially marginalised spaces. So, it is the search for this knowledge, especially by women who come from colonised countries with such rich and beautiful narratives to tell, that I learn the most. It is necessity that drives women to tell the world about who we are and to impact on the construction of reality around us. What are you wearing, and is there a story behind it? The piece I am wearing doesn't really have any history to me, as the antique shawl I am using in the picture was chosen by Carla on the photoshoot. Although, when she gave me this mantilla it did remind me of my own Spanish and Portuguese heritage, and made me think of the veil worn by women in Catholic masses in Brazil. I really enjoyed wearing this piece as I am normally in the studio covered in paint, with my Dunlop heavy boots working on one of my artworks.

ARTFULLY DRESSED: Women in the Art World

Lotte Dale Lotte was born in Berkeley, California, to an American father and a Dutch mother. As a girl, Lotte had set her sights on becoming a lawyer or a sociologist. It was in her second year of college that she started to explore photography and decided to pursue a career in taking pictures. She is now a freelance nightlife and fashion photographer based in Amsterdam. Could you tell us something about your role in the art world? I am a freelance photographer working in Amsterdam. I am mostly specialised in events. I always try to tell a story. I choose what people see. You create a look and feel and thus create an (alternative) perspective of the night. As a photographer you are mostly an observer, but I also try to participate and experience the moments that I photograph. I love to photograph the moments that are impossible to recreate, people totally letting go and showing a side of themselves that even they didn’t know. I also feel that it is very important to show the diversity in my photography. What did you enjoy about being a part of this project? I enjoy Carla’s work. Her work is very diﬀerent from what I do so I can learn a lot from it, like how to work with natural light. I love being part of a group of remarkable women in the art world. I feel very honoured to be a part of this project. There is a huge imbalance of gender representation in art, so to me it is very important to shine a light on the women in the art world and Carla’s Women in the Art World is doing that. Do you have a favourite artist? I do not have a specific favourite artist. I sometimes happen upon a picture that I love and then I will look up the photographer and look up more of his or her work. There is so much out there and many diﬀerent artists inspire me daily. What is your earliest memory involving art? My mom gave me a disposable camera when I was about six years old and I would take random pictures of my family members and my bunny rabbit. A couple of weeks ago I found the photo albums. I had forgotten that my interest in photography had started at such an early age. When I was eleven and living in New York City I had my first exhibition. I took analog photography classes and I learned how to develop film in the dark room. To this day, I develop my own film at home. Do you have any special thoughts about the position of women in the art world? Women used to merely be the object in the art world and now they create their own art. Women artists have, to this day, been overlooked. Social media makes it possible for anybody to share their work but the majority of art venues continue to privilege the work of male artists. I feel like it is important to acknowledge it and work towards more representation of women artists, especially women of colour. What are you wearing, and is there a story behind it? I am wearing a jacket by Isabell Schulz. I introduced Carla to her designs. Isabell has wildly original ideas and works extremely hard. My very first fashion shoot I did was for her and I love the modern crazy edge her collections bring to the photographs.

Exhibited at The Weiss Ga"ery (16 - 31 May 2018)

ARTFULLY DRESSED: Women in the Art World

Roxana Halls Born in Plaistow, London, Roxana spent her latter childhood in Devon. Halls has, for several years, made her studio in the disused bar of a 1930s London theatre. She has held several solo exhibitions including at The National Theatre, Beaux Arts Bath Gallery and with Hayhill Gallery, Cork St, Mayfair. Her work has been exhibited at numerous group shows including the B.P. Portrait Award on five occasions, The Royal Society of Portrait Painters & The Ruth Borchard Self Portrait Competition. Roxana has been the recipient of several awards, including the Villiers David Prize, The Discerning Eye Founder's Purchase Prize, The Derwent Special Prize & the Elizabeth Greenshields Foundation Award. Her work has garnered many positive reviews and features, including for Time Out, City AM, Modern Painters, Art of England, Artists & Illustrators, The Independent, The Sunday Telegraph & The London Evening Standard. Halls’ work is held in numerous private and public collections in the UK and internationally, including The Discerning Eye Collection, St. Catherine's College Oxford, the late London Evening Standard art critic Brian Sewell, Bafta Award winning actor Katherine Parkinson, Bel Mooney, Sophie Parkin, Kelly- Anne Lyons and Barry & Debbie Bliss. Her commissions include Alan Grieve CBE, Chairman of the Jerwood Foundation & John Simopoulos, Emeritus Professor. Articles written by Halls on her work and practice have been published in national art magazines. She teaches regularly on the Contemporary Portrait Diploma course at The Art Academy, London. Could you tell us something about your role in the art world? Painting is my most immediate language. It can't possibly communicate what I intended at the time of its making to every viewer but it is always interesting to know how it has been translated by them to suit their own purposes. Everything I know and see which is not discarded is filtered and reformed and becomes an image in my mind which I may or may not choose to make. It is the thing I know most intimately but at the same time don't entirely understand and I am comfortable with this. I think my role is to investigate and to never quite know where I'm going next, not to just 'produce'. What did you enjoy about being a part of this project? Over the years I've collaborated with and sat for several artists and it is always fascinating to oﬀer yourself as their 'material' and see what occurs. I find Carla's work stunning so it was a pleasure to be photographed by her for this project. The garment of mine which she chose for me to wear from my collection is a particular favourite, in part because of its obvious visual appeal but also because of the photographs found with it of an unknown woman wearing it long ago. In a sense, these collective elements are aﬀecting in the way I as an artist might hope a painting can sometimes be. Having caught the eye with beauty, a tale unfolds. I made a painting many years ago about this outfit and the lost identity of its first wearer and have always planned to use it again. Having myself woven into the life of this garment in Carla's image is disconcerting but rather wonderful. Do you have a favourite artist? Andrei Tarkovsky. Karin Mamma Andersson. What is your earliest memory involving art? As a child I would spend long days sitting with a pile of magazines, selecting and cutting out pictures of figures and objects from them. I would then arrange these into an evolving series of narrative compositions on a board too large for my little lap. I was telling myself stories & I was never lonely while I did this. Not much has changed. Do you have any special thoughts about the position of women in the art world? We should never be underestimated.

ARTFULLY DRESSED: Women in the Art World

What are you wearing, and is there a story behind it? I bought this garment many years ago at a London vintage market. I distinctly remember the intensely vivid green silk capturing my attention from some way oďŹ&#x20AC;. I collect vintage clothes and in particular theatrical costumes for use in my paintings but I've never before or since made a discovery quite like this. On making my way over to it I saw not only this stunning outfit â&#x20AC;&#x201C; which comes with a headdress, not seen in Carla's portrait, which is also decorated with chinoiserie embroidery â&#x20AC;&#x201C; but also two quite extraordinary photographs which you can see me holding here. These photographs show a woman wearing this outfit long ago, I assume from the date of the garment's making. In one image she stands as if displaying the beautiful shape of the jacket sleeves, in the other outside what I suppose is her own house. Her gaze in this image has a disarming directness and both this and the glimpse at a location make me long to know more about her. What is even more remarkable and of course sad, is that the seller told me that the garment and photographs were found discarded together on a public tip somewhere in Kent, but that someone had had the foresight to keep them all together. I once painted a picture of the second photograph and outfit together titled 'Unknown Woman'. I imagine that this is what she will always be to me and that I will continue to speculate about her identity and her life and to ensure that her image and ensemble are never separated.

Exhibited at The Weiss Ga"ery (16 - 31 May 2018)

ARTFULLY DRESSED: Women in the Art World

Laura Hospes Laura has been capturing her self with the camera since she was sixteen, out of a need to connect with people. Her self-portraits are her way of making clear what is inside her. Photography is her medium to accept and process her life. The resulting images are intense and capture a glimpse inside the world of a young woman dealing with depression and anxiety. Hospes was named one of the 50 best emerging photographers of 2015 by the international jury for the LensCulture Emerging Talent Awards. Her work has been featured frequently both at home in The Netherlands, and abroad. Could you tell us something about your role in the art world? As a (mainly) self-portrait photographer I’m kind of an einzelgänger. I am the only one who can tell my story as it is. I hope to be a mirror in a world where everybody is expected to be the same according to the system. Several people told me that I should stop documenting my ‘illness’, but in the meantime every artist is translating his or her suﬀering into art. It is a way of coping with being an outsider and not fitting in one particular box. Through my work I make myself part of the world and I hope to inspire other outsiders to do that. What did you enjoy about being a part of this project? Carla is a very professional photographer and I really enjoyed the joint search for the image that would mirror what she had in mind. I was blown away when I saw the outcome. The way she had captured my emotions through my facial expressions and the pure integrity of my skin and scars made me want to keep looking at the photo. And as I did, I found even more reasons to keep looking. I find it an honour to be part of this project. Do you have a favourite artist? My all-time favourite artist used to be Francesca Woodman, but since I encountered the work of Lara Gasparotto at her solo exhibition at the Fotomuseum in The Hague (The Netherlands), Woodman had to make room for Gasparotto. Personally, I find (solo) exhibitions an important part of an artists’ body of work. They provide opportunities to really get to know an artist and experience what he/she wants to tell you with the work. Lara Gasparotto did so well that she became my new ‘all-time favourite’. What is your earliest memory involving art? I can’t remember a very specific moment, but I do remember that I used to be disappointed when a drawing came out diﬀerently than I had in mind. I couldn’t draw as well as I wanted to draw and was very frustrated about that. When I discovered photography, I suddenly was able to make something as I had it in my mind, or even better. That’s when I started to make self-portraits. Do you have any special thoughts about the position of women in the art world? When I meet someone who has a certain position in the art world, I often go through a phase that this person tries to tell me what I should do. Even though I can be quite insecure about myself, I do know what I want. Sometimes I just need a little time to find the words or the intuition to make this clear to myself. I try not to think about it too much, but I painfully discovered that there are a lot of men in powerful positions in the (art) world. As a young woman, I often find myself preparatorily protecting myself in case I get intimidated by the ‘important’ men I’m going to meet. I watch it happen around me: (female) artists struggle to stand up for themselves and feel dependent of these men of importance, because they ‘need’ them to buy, sell or exhibit their art. And I hate to admit it, but I feel it too. What are you wearing, and is there a story behind it? I have periods when I cannot withstand the temptation of the commercials and ads that I come across on social media. That’s exactly what happened when I ordered this dress. It is a beautiful dress, but I would rarely wear it in public. I received it a couple of days before the shoot with Carla and snatched it from the table as I left my house to travel to her studio. We had to dry-clean it, because it was full of wrinkles. But in the end, this temptation wasn’t so bad after all.

ARTFULLY DRESSED: Women in the Art World

Marie-José Jongerius Marie-José is a Dutch landscape photographer. The central question in her work is how we try to shape, appropriate and control the world. She finds answers in the urban and natural landscapes and the visible cultural, economic, social and political influences they bear. Borders and boundaries form a special interest, as a place of possibility and transition. Jongerius has published several books: ‘Sweetwater’, ‘Lunar Landscapes’, ‘Concrete Wilderness’ and ‘Edges of the Experiment’. The latter was nominated for the Arles Book Award 2015, was a finalist for a Dutch Design Award 2015, and on the shortlist for the Infinity Award in the category critical writing and research 2016, and Los Angeles Palms 2017. Could you tell us something about your role in the art world? My role in the art world mostly takes shape in the world of photography. My goal is to work together with people from diﬀerent disciplines to create work with diﬀerent layers and points of view. What did you enjoy about being a part of this project? It was an honour to be part of this project and to work with Carla, to see her create. Do you have a favourite artist? No, I have many: Robert Adams, William Eggleston, Ansel Adams, William L. Fox, Umberto Eco, Edward Ruscha, Joel Sternfeld, Alec Soth, Richard Avedon, David Hockney, Dennis Hopper, Richard Misrach, Mark Rothko, Dana Lixenberg, Wim Wenders, Jared Farmer, Anton Corbijn, Andreas Gursky, Stephen Shore, Rineke Dijkstra, Lewis Balz, Mark Ruwedel, Henry Wessel Jr., Taryn Simon. What is your earliest memory involving art? When I was fifteen I started photography. Shooting Black and White. Developing and printing in the darkroom felt like magic. I was lucky to have a darkroom at the house where I grew up. Do you have any special thoughts about the position of women in the art world? What can I say, it should be more equal. But things are changing. What are you wearing, and is there a story behind it? The dress I am wearing was designed by the Dutch designer Edwin Oudshoorn, who kindly lent it to Carla for this project.

ARTFULLY DRESSED: Women in the Art World

Miho Kajioka Miho was born in Okayama and at the age of eighteen moved to California, where she studied at the San Francisco Art Institute. She began there as a painting major, but little by little turned to photography. In 1995 She moved to Montreal, Canada, where she finished her fine arts degree at Concordia University. Upon graduation, she returned to Japan and became a journalist, producing TV news and documentary programs for foreign news outlets for more than ten years. After the 2011 Tohoku earthquake, tsunami and Fukushima accident, she decided to go back to art. Could you tell us something about your role in the art world? Since I began studying art as a teenager, I have felt that I am a medium or transmitter to produce art with the inspiration as it comes to me. When I can transfer the inspiration into art as purely as possible, without my ego, I feel incredibly happy. My brain can’t produce works as interesting as the inspiration I receive, so I try not to listen to my brain too much! The more purely I can transfer inspiration into my art (in other words the more I try not to put myself into MY works), the better they look. I don’t know what my role in the art world is, but I believe that is important. What did you enjoy about being a part of this project? When Carla first asked me to be photographed, I said no because I basically don’t like to be in front of lenses, however when she explained the concept of ‘Women in the Art World’ and showed me some dresses, I became very interested in being a part of it. The theme is beautiful and I really enjoyed dressing up. Do you have a favourite artist? Zero (Günther Uecker, Otto Piene etc.), Sengai Gibon, Joan Miro, Mark Rothko, Cy Twombly, Tawaraya Sōtatsu, Alberto Giacometti. What is your earliest memory involving art? I was drawing on a wall of my parent’s house. I remember being in my imaginary world while I was drawing. Do you have any special thoughts about the position of women in the art world? I am happy to see art works produced by diﬀerent kinds of artists with diﬀerent backgrounds. What are you wearing, and is there a story behind it? These are Victorian garments, which are so fragile, that I had to be super-careful not to break the fabrics. They are faded and very worn – however these make the dress even more beautiful. When Carla was photographing me, there were flowers in the room, almost dried out, worn like the clothes. She decided to sprinkle those petals over me as I lay on the floor.

Exhibited at The Weiss Ga"ery (16 - 31 May 2018)

ARTFULLY DRESSED: Women in the Art World

Jade van der Mark Jade launched ‘Statement Made By Jade’ in The Netherlands in 2015. Born in Bergen, Jade began her career in Amsterdam after a period of three years at the Royal Academy of Arts; she left school to start her own label and to do an internship at Viktor&Rolf. Additionally, the designer showed her collection at the Milan Design Week in April 2016, at Palazzo Francesco Turati. In December 2016, Jade won the Netherlands Fashion Award in Milan, organised by the Dutch consulate in Milan. She has shown her art and designs in several places in the fashion scene there and she will be showing her collection during the Milan Fashion Week 2018. Furthermore, the prêt-à-porter collection will be available in Milan at the end of this year. Jade van der Mark not only shows her paintings and fashion designs in museums in The Netherlands, but she had exhibitions in Brussels and Milan and soon there will be a show in the New York art district. Her work has been sold to art collectors and clients from the Netherlands, Milan, Monaco and Brussels. Beside this, her work is represented, among other places, at KLM and ING. The combination between fashion and paintings makes ‘Statement Made By Jade’ unique. Could you tell us something about your role in the art world? I want to change the art world, which has been taken over by speed, the digital world, money and having no recognition for art that is emotionally charged. At the moment I have a pessimistic view on our world, the pace of our society has caused a spiritual destitution in both art and other manifestations of us as human beings. My role? Making people aware of this as an antidote, and next to this, I truly want to touch people with my paintings and fashion pieces, between which there is a connection. My paintings are a part of the design story and are the first transformation from idea into a collection. I am making use of a wide range of colours in my paintings, and I am using all of these colours for my clothing. So the clothing is based on art. What did you enjoy about being a part of this project? This is an important project for me, especially from my perspective as a woman, because in my opinion more attention should be drawn to the female artists in the art world. Most of the legendary artists were men, and it is time to make place for female artists. It is my view that the power of women has been enlarged over the years. In fact, it seems as if women are becoming manlier and men have become more feminine. Next to this, it is an honour to be featured by Carla, as her work touches me and it is completely compatible with the work that inspires me. Do you have a favourite artist? There are diﬀerent artists I admire, but this varies from photography, architecture, figurative art, music, impressionism to radical art and more. I describe art as something in the air, and if you are capable as an artist to see this and to form this into something contemporary, then I am touched. If I can mention a few artists that I admire: Ludovico Einaudi, Jean Nouvel, Tim Walker, Noah Latif Lamp, Marina Abramovic, Pablo Picasso, Lucian Freud, Alexander McQueen, Max Beckmann and Markus Lupertz. What is your earliest memory involving art? In my opinion artists are born as artists, you cannot learn to become an artist. Perhaps one can train by seeing many pieces of art, but to live and see art starts at birth. So, when I look at my earliest memory involving art? This was when I witnessed the world for the first time, because the world we live in is the greatest artwork. Do you have any special thoughts about the position of women in the art world? ‘What if Picasso was a woman?’ From prehistoric times women have had a minor role in society. It would come down to being prepped for arranged marriages and to accept the dutiful role as wife. It was either this or taking care of the parents. This is why the role of the woman in the history of art has always been quite austere, which is reflected in the entire history of art, while art is in my opinion unilateral. Michelangelo, Caravaggio, Rodin, Dali and Picasso, who does not know them? Anguissola, Gentileschi, Claudel, Goncharova, who does know them? Art history is mainly focused

ARTFULLY DRESSED: Women in the Art World

on ‘dead white male artists’ and this is why we could describe it as ‘His story of art’. Female artists are mainly forgotten or overshadowed by the ‘great masters’. Slowly we see that the role of women is growing, but from my point of view, a larger extent of attention may be drawn to this. This is why my answer for the future of ‘women in art’ to the question ‘What if Picasso was a woman?’ is the following: She would be even bigger than Picasso himself. What are you wearing, and is there a story behind it? I combine art and fashion, as they are intertwined with each other. During my design process, the paintings and fashion pieces start to form a connection. It is the painting that first tells the story, and it ends with the fashion piece. They dance around each other, so to speak. During the process of designing, I play with the values of art and fashion and look for a dialogue between traditional handicraft and a modern artistic translation thereof. The dress in the picture was commissioned for an opening of the Design Week in Milan and was embroidered entirely by hand. The client had chosen for the colour pink, which looked wonderful on her. The opening at which the dress was shown, gave the dress a very unique exposure.

ARTFULLY DRESSED: Women in the Art World

Hellen van Meene Hellen, born in Alkmaar, the Netherlands, studied photography at the Gerrit Rietveld Academie, Amsterdam. Over the last twenty years, Hellen has produced a complex body of work, oﬀering a contemporary take on photographic portraiture. Her depictions of girls and boys on the cusp of adulthood demonstrate a clear aesthetic lineage to 17th century Dutch painting. Her work has been exhibited internationally and is in the collections of major museums around the world, including the Guggenheim Museum, New York; Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam; Victoria and Albert Museum, London; Art Institute of Chicago; Brooklyn Museum; Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles; and San Francisco Museum of Modern Art. Could you tell us something about your role in the art world? To think about myself as having a role is quite heavy. I don't know if I have a role. What I am happy about is that I have a podium to show my work at interesting places so that I can share my opinion and ideas through my work. What did you enjoy about being a part of this project? That is simple; Carla has been my friend for a long time and if I can help her than I will put my feelings aside to be photographed. For me, being a model is not easy as a photographer. We had a good lunch afterwards and that was a reward. Do you have a favourite artist? No. What is your earliest memory involving art? The old yellowish history cardboard plates with dirty spots in my classroom as a young child. I always enjoyed looking at the diﬀerent scenes. Do you have any special thoughts about the position of women in the art world? I am still surprised that a woman with the same talent as a male photographer of about the same age, will not get the same opportunities or shows as a male photographer. What are you wearing, and is there a story behind it? There is no particular story behind this outfit. The only reason why I love to wear this, is because it is yellow – one of my favourite colours to wear!

Exhibited at The Weiss Ga"ery (16 - 31 May 2018)

ARTFULLY DRESSED: Women in the Art World

Sofie Muller Sofie was born in St-Nicolas and lives and works in Ghent. The main recurring themes of her oeuvre are imperfection and psycho-physical trauma. She taps into the breaking point of the mind and body and portrays it in smoke drawings and sculptures in bronze or alabaster. Solo shows of the past three years include: Gallerie Michaela Stock, Vienna, Geukens & De Vil, Antwerp; Martin Kudlek, Cologne, Fondation Francès, Senlis, Biala galeria Lublin, Odapark Venray, FelixArt Drogenbos. Group exhibitions of the past three years include: Bildraum Bregenz (AU), Palazzo Fortuny Venice, Mocak Krakow, Coup de Ville, St. Nicolas, Guislain Museum Ghent, OdaparkVenray, Gallery Maskara, Mumbai, Kunsthalle Nürnberg, Royal Museum of Fine Arts Brussels, Basel Volta, Watou, Museum Beelden aan Zee. Could you tell us something about your role in the art world? I am a Belgian mid-career artist who makes drawings, sculptures and installations. My work focuses on the human condition, the deeper layers of human psychology. I prefer to work with traditional media such as bronze and alabaster. I love working with alabaster because the stone is fragile and often marked by imperfections. To me, these cracks and marblings are material echoes of human injuries, physical and psychological wounds. In my sculptures, I try to work around subtle changes that bring about minor mental landslides... What did you enjoy about being a part of this project? I’m truly honoured to be part of Carla’s project. We had never met before, but I knew her work through a common group exhibition at KMSK. It was already obvious back then that we share a mutual sensitivity in our work. We’re soulmates, we speak the same language. Do you have a favourite artist? There are so many masterpieces that move me; a family portrait by Hans Holbein, Giorgione’s ‘La Vecchia’, ‘Jewish Boy’ by Medardo Rosso, ‘La petit chatelaine’ by Camille Claudel, ‘The Kneeling’ by Georges Minne, Marlene Dumas’ ‘Black Drawings’, to name only a few. My roots lie in Ghent, and I feel connected to artists that live and work nearby; Michael Borremans, Berlinde De Bruyckere, Thierry De Cordier en Dirk Braeckman. There’s an aura of melancholy and uneasiness that binds these artists. What is your earliest memory involving art? I was born in to a family of antique dealers; three generations of art collectors and merchants. Growing up, I was surrounded by art and antiques, because my father was specialised in 17th century painting and 15th and 16th century sculpture. I still remember the passage to the bathroom at my grandparents’ house that was filled with art. Every time I passed there was a little journey that confronted me with various frightening scenes, sculptures of saints and religious objects. Do you have any special thoughts about the position of women in the art world? There’s a definite lack of female energy in this world, it’s missing in politics, it’s missing in art... in everything. We’re in urgent need of empathy, something that women tend to convey more often. I don’t fool myself; we’re living in a male-centred world. We’re overpowered by male energy, by sheer rationality, oppression and aggression. In our daily reality, so in the world of art as well. It’s very diﬃcult to keep going as a woman artist, unless you start behaving in a male way. One of the challenges of women in the arts is to keep away from imitating our male colleagues. What are you wearing, and is there a story behind it? I’m wearing a Veronique Branquinho coat. It’s vintage. Branquinho’s designs are timeless, strong and romantic at the same time. I’m holding one of my alabaster sculptures: Alabaster Mentalis AL/LIV/ 17. It’s a portrait of my little nephew, Vidas, who was just a couple of months old when I made the sculpture. The white crust and clay residue remind me of the skin of a newborn, unwashed baby. You can see it as a dialogue between the fragility of his young life and the solemn strength of the stone. This sculpture will go in a benefit-auction for h’Art magazine (Belgium) in June at Philips in London. Exhibited at The Weiss Ga"ery (16 - 31 May 2018)

ARTFULLY DRESSED: Women in the Art World

Marie-Louise Plum Marie-Louise is a multidisciplinary, self-taught artist. She draws, paints, works in collage and collects, making interventions and site-specific installations. Her artistic practice takes shape alongside long-term, thoroughly documented research projects, following themes of social alienation, personal boundaries, ambiguity and subversion of the 'common sense'. Each of her projects amasses a large collection of two- and three-dimensional work, as well as multiple notebooks and journals, which she sometimes exhibits. Her recent exhibition at Bob & Roberta's CCCA in Coventry – an immersive, live painting and audio experience, 'Suburban English Magick' – was the catalyst for a new series of paintings that capture the voyeuristic sense of peering into worlds and peoples unknown. Could you tell us something about your role in the art world? As an artist, I act as a conduit for my innermost fears, fortunes and failures to reveal themselves, communicate with others, and share in experience. My particular interests are preservation, memory, mortality, sense of self, and identity. A large part of my art practice is searching, scavenging and regenerating that which is lost or forgotten, be it objects or ideas. Symbolism and references to self-protective ritual are often depicted in my paintings, following themes of social alienation, sexual ambiguity and subversion of the 'common sense'. What did you enjoy about being a part of this project? I viewed this project as a collaboration between me, the subject; Roxana Halls, whose imaginative and curious costume collection we used; Florence Evans, Weiss Gallery director; and the artist, Carla van de Puttelaar, as a great example of women working together in art to create something utterly unique and beautiful. I enjoyed being the subject, and found that Carla very quickly honed in on my character. Do you have a favourite artist? I have many favourite artists, for many diﬀerent reasons. They include Henry Darger, Frida Kahlo, Scottie Wilson, Thomas Toft, Joseph Wright of Derby, Leon Underwood and Ralph Steadman. What is your earliest memory involving art? My grandmother and everything about her. Iole Veronica Levolella. Her house was a living museum, a curiosity cabinet of mystery and magic. She painted, in oils, and collected in tonnes. Do you have any special thoughts about the position of women in the art world? There are no particular special thoughts about the position of women in the art world. Just keep doing what you're doing. If it's any good, you'll get there. Oh, and be kind to each other. What are you wearing, and is there a story behind it? My outfit is a combination of items that I saw for the first time and selected. They somehow fit together, exactly as I'd imagined them to. I seem to be drawn to the same themes over and over again, in art, in life, in my approach to pretty much everything. Pulling things together, finding, collecting, assembling. My artwork often presents females as warriors of sorts, be they a psychological warrior, a woman of immense physical strength, or a fated saint whose strength comes from endurance. I'll call this look ‘Joan of Arc meets 17th Century Lady of Quality’ – both warriors of a diﬀerent kind!

Exhibited at The Weiss Ga"ery (16 - 31 May 2018)

ARTFULLY DRESSED: Women in the Art World

Carla van de Puttelaar PhD Carla lives and works in Amsterdam. In 1996, she graduated from the Gerrit Rietveld Academy in Amsterdam. In the same year she was awarded the Esther Kroon Prize, and in 2002 she won the Prix de Rome Basic Prize. In 2006 she was a nominee for Le Prix Découverte des Rencontres d’Arles. Her photographic work has gained worldwide recognition, and she has exhibited in numerous museums and galleries around the world. Her work has appeared in many publications including five monographs. She works for internationally acclaimed magazines and publishers such as The New York Times Magazine, The New Yorker, and Random House. The cover she did for The New York Times Magazine in 2015 was selected as one of their best photos of the year. Her work is represented in many public and private collections around the world. In 2016 she created The Rembrandt Series in collaboration with the Rembrandt House Museum in Amsterdam, who also organized an exhibition of this series in the spring of 2016, alongside their exhibition on Rembrandt’s Nudes. A new monograph of Carla’s photographic work, entitled Adornments appeared in October 2017. In January 2018, Carla was a juror in the World Press Photo Contest. In 2020 she will have a large retrospective show at the National Museum of History and Art in Luxembourg. Van de Puttelaar has taught Photography at the Royal Academy of Art in The Hague. She published several articles on Dutch portraiture from the seventeenth century in Oud Ho"and, and in several exhibition catalogues. Carla has been asked regularly to lecture about her photographic work at universities, museums and other venues around the world, as well as about the subject of her dissertation, for example in 2015 at the Paul Mellon Centre in London and in 2017 at the University of Edinburgh. She holds a PhD on Scottish Portraiture 1644 – 1714, which she defended successfully at Utrecht University in September 2017. Could you tell us something about your role in the art world? I am an artist and art historian. As an artist, the female face and body have long been an important subject, but in recent years also flowers and trees have caught my attention. I have always had a keen interest in portraiture. Portraits originate as free work, or as the result of a commission, such as a series done in 2015 for The New Yorker. My photos are shot in natural light. In them, my love for portraits by 17th century painters is clearly recognizable. I aim to catch an intense image of the sitter, and I am keen on recording a specific, momentary expression, be it emotional or powerful, but always individual. As an art historian, I have always had a special focus on 17th century portraits, in particular British and Dutch portraits. I am a connoisseur; with my partner, the art historian Fred G. Meijer, daily I look intensively at paintings, and we enjoy discussing them together and finding attributions for them. What did you enjoy about being a part of this project? My first incentive was to photograph a large group of women working in various areas of the art world. Several of them asked me who would portray me. And two participants, Talita Teves (with the help of her assistant Diederick Bulstra) and Georgina Eliot did so. The gallery however, asked me to do a self-portrait for the project, which I realized with the help of my partner, Fred. I found this quite challenging, but also it feels like an honour to be represented among all these talented women I admire. Do you have a favourite artist? I have a great passion for art and love to look at the work of others with admiration daily. Often individual artworks speak to me, whether it is ‘Saint Francis of Assisi in His Tomb’ by Zurbaran, ‘Portrait of Maria Florianus’, by Cornelis van der Voort, Munch’s ‘Kiss’, the woodblock print ‘Bathing in Cold Water’ by Utamaro, the ‘Descent from the Cross’ by Rogier van der Weyden, ‘Ellen Terry at Age Sixteen’ by Julia Margaret Cameron or the portrait of ‘Richard Lauder, Laird of Haltoun’ by the Scottish portrait painter David Scougall, the main subject of my dissertation on Scottish Portraiture.

ARTFULLY DRESSED: Women in the Art World

What is your earliest memory involving art? The earliest might be when I was two years old and I was waiting at the counter of a museum, probably at the hand of my father. I looked at the Old Dutch hand-painted tiles in front of me and I remember being frustrated I could not see above it. At primary school I began to make drawings after paintings and then I started to collect everything I could about Sisi (Empress Elisabeth of Austria). Around the same time I became enchanted by the glamorous portraits of her by Franz Xavier Winterhalter. Do you have any special thoughts about the position of women in the art world? During this project I have realised to the full how many of us there are, and that the numbers are growing. It is a joy to see how much has been achieved. However, I also know that women are not spread evenly throughout all areas. Women artists as a group are still less celebrated than their male counterparts. The Old Master world is still mainly a male network, although this is changing. Also there are substantial discrepancies between countries. And certainly in countries where women have fewer rights there is much to be done, not only in the art world. As a teacher and art historian I encountered many more female students than male students, which will also have its repercussion on the near future. What are you wearing, and is there a story behind it? I am wearing an embroidered velvet Elizabethan coat by Favourbrook and I surrounded myself by more of such coats. I love the quality of fabric, the craftsmanship and the style of them. One of my grandfathers was a tailor. He died a year before my birth and only recently my mother told me that he loved tailored fitted coats like these especially. So it is in my genes! I am also wearing my favourite black lace dress by Karen Millen and several cameos, as I always do. One of them, a ring, was presented to me by my daughters on receiving my PhD last September.

Exhibited at The Weiss Ga"ery (16 - 31 May 2018)

ARTFULLY DRESSED: Women in the Art World

50 Exhibited at The Weiss Ga"ery (16 - 31 May 2018)

ARTFULLY DRESSED: Women in the Art World

Isabell Schulz Isabell was born in a small village in the east of Germany. Her parents divorced when she was a toddler and she moved to the Netherlands after her mother found a Dutch partner. After high school she studied at the WDKA (Academy of Art) in Rotterdam and in her third year attended an exchange program at the Academy of Art IED in Barcelona, Spain. After graduating from the WDKA, she invested in a good sewing machine and started working out of her student home. She is hooked on experimenting and creating. Ever since she began, she has never made the exact same garment twice. People started discovering her work and her style, and soon she was getting her first small commissions. She never made any concessions, always remained true to herself and wouldn't even know how to do it any other way. Could you tell us something about your role in the art world? I have a unique way of combining things: combinations with material, shapes, people, atmosphere that I put all into one. And that one is me. It makes me feel complete when I can show other people my inner creations and when they see the quality and beauty in it. What did you enjoy about being a part of this project? I enjoyed meeting Carla, and introducing her to my creations. I hope we can work together more often in the future. Do you have a favourite artist? Not really. It changes by the day. What is your earliest memory involving art? When I was five years old, my stepfather always wrote little notes on post-its, 5 x 5 cm. And one day I took these pieces of paper and I started making at least 30 drawings every day. My mother found them all over the house. I did this maybe for about seven years. I think I still have some of them stored in a book somewhere. Do you have any special thoughts about the position of women in the art world? There still isn't full equality in the world between men and women. Art gives you the opportunity to express yourself or to tell a story. That's why it's valuable to take a moment to reflect on this. What are you wearing, and is there a story behind it? A year ago I was designing clothing for dancers in an upcoming club in Rotterdam. Every night of the weekend I was there and I dressed the performers. On weekdays I was working in my studio making the outfits. So, there was this big red velvet curtain hanging at the entrance of the club. It was in a bad shape though, badly damaged, so I took it with me to my studio to measure it up. I made a new curtain and brought that one back to the club. I still had the old curtain though, at my workshop, so the next day I was making crazy designs behind my computer. And then I just thought of putting these designs on that piece of curtain and I made a jacket out of it. It looked amazing and a lot of people liked it. So then I bought some similar fabric somewhere else and made two more jackets. So those are more fresh than the fabric I originally used from the club. It's the same idea, only fresh.

ARTFULLY DRESSED: Women in the Art World

Venus Veldhoen Venus is a Dutch photographer, specializing in portraiture. She studied at the Gerrit Rietveld Academie in Amsterdam from 1992 to 1996. Subsequently, she studied art history at the University of Amsterdam and at the Free University there, and wrote her master thesis on Claude Cahun (1894 – 1954). Venus makes portraits for, among others, NGOs such as Doctors Without Borders and Unicef, but she also works for magazines and companies. For her free work, she mainly portrays her family members and fellow citizens such as Chinese in Amsterdam and local folk. Additionally, she teaches photography at the Amsterdam Photo Academy. Could you tell us something about your role in the art world? I see myself as a documentary photographer. My work is published in magazines and I also do commercial work, which helps to finance my free work. I love history, and I view photography as historiography in images. I prefer to use an analogue camera since I feel that this material can be preserved longer and has more relevance, even though it may be old fashioned to think so. What did you enjoy about being a part of this project? I enjoyed participating in this project because I have known Carla for a very long time and think she is a good photographer. She was one of my classmates at the Rietveld and we graduated together. When I am asked to sit for another photographer, I almost always say YES! I love to help photographers to produce a neat image. I, too, often photograph models and people and like to do something in return. I also like to observe how others work, which you can do very well when you’re at the other side of the camera. Do you have a favourite artist? My favourite artist is Claude Cahun. I wrote my masters thesis on her. She was a surrealist artist who was active in Paris around 1920. She was also a photographer and only made self-portraits, and wrote poems as well. She was ahead of her time and produced impressive work that has multiple layers. It is about gender, race and identity. She was rediscovered not long ago, people always thought she was a man, but she was a woman! What is your earliest memory involving art? This is a funny question. I was born in the studio of my father, who is a painter. Holland’s best known photographer, Ed van der Elsken, who was a friend of my father’s, was present at my birth and took photos. He was working on a project on life and death. Of course, I cannot remember the event myself. I have many wonderful memories from my youth that involve art; as a child I particularly loved the Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam. The atmosphere there was so serene. You felt like you were in heaven. Do you have any special thoughts about the position of women in the art world? I think it is very important that women are active in this business. Unfortunately, there are still too few women at the top in the arts. In the Netherlands there are remarkably many good female photographers. This may be due to Rineke Dijkstra, who set an example for many. Both Carla and I followed classes with her at the Rietveld Academy. Currently more women than men are studying photography at Dutch art academies. I think it is important to support female artists and to research their work. We still have a lot to gain. We are making art herstory! What are you wearing, and is there a story behind it? I love this dress, designed by the Danish designer Claes Iversen. I could have stepped out of the seventeenth century wearing it, it reminds me of old paintings by Titian, Rembrandt or Velasquez. A real work of art.

ARTFULLY DRESSED: Women in the Art World

Tatiana Vinogradova Tatiana Vinogradova was born in Cherepovets, Russia and is a freelance photographer based in St. Petersburg. She studied journalism at St. Petersburg State University. Prior to her career in photography, Tatiana had a successful career as a creative director in advertising. Since 2014 she has been developing her interest and passion for portraiture, and currently she is working as a portrait and documentary photographer. Her work has won awards in a number of professional competitions, including the People Stories category of the 2018 World Press Photo contest, POYI, NPPA's Best of Photojournalism, Atlanta Photojournalism Contest, CPOY, Pride Photo Award. She was also a finalist in the Contour by Getty Images Portrait Prize and the Kuala Lumpur International Portrait Prize. Tatiana has exhibited her work in galleries and festivals around the world, including the Finnish Museum of Photography in Helsinki, Photoville Festival in New York, Pride Photo Award Exhibition in Amsterdam, Kuala Lumpur Portrait Exhibition, Diffusion Festival in Cardiff and the Hellerau Portrait Award Exhibition in Dresden. In her personal work Tatiana focuses on contemporary issues and social injustice in Russia. Her projects, which are dedicated to the LGBT community, political prisoners and patients with mental disorders, are aimed at increasing tolerance and changing public attitudes towards stigmatized groups. Could you tell us something about your role in the art world? The role an artist plays in society is largely dependent on the personality of the artist and on that artist's chosen subject matter. An artist can lead, follow, uplift or provoke with their work. Art is often a reflection or extension of personality. I take my role as an artist very seriously. I try to be very thoughtful and socially aware of my surroundings. Whenever I experience feelings of discomfort in my life, I need to find an answer by transforming those feelings through my work. I can’t explain why some people or some issues fascinate me so much. I guess, they are the things that grab my attention, injustices that I can’t close my eyes to, situations that make me engage personally with them. I believe that documentary photography has the potential to effect social change, to make a difference, to expand a viewer's field of vision. What did you enjoy about being a part of this project? The creation of art is a collective activity. Art forms such as dance, theatre, choir and photography all require a group of artists and an audience. It is an incredible honour to be a part of this project. It offers us a reason to come together and share in an experience; we need art to keep us connected. Do you have a favourite artist? Hellen van Meene What is your earliest memory involving art? My first memory of art happened a long time ago. When I was about six, I began taking piano lessons from a very old and talented teacher. Eight years later, I graduated from music school. I believe that music is a language that connects to the whole universe. Everyone can understand it in their own way, without translation, and I feel privileged to be able to ‘speak’ this language. In life, we all try very hard to express ourselves through different methods. For me, playing the piano is a great way to express my feelings. Do you have any special thoughts about the position of women in the art world? In any corner of the art world, the voice and point of views of women are underrepresented. Despite this fact, women have found myriad ways of expressing the many facets of their identity, as well as their gender, through their work. Women certainly have something valid to say, they have very particular life experiences and they have a message that they want to communicate – a very valuable one. The new generation of female artists are pushing boundaries and exploring possibilities, giving themselves a licence to do what they would like to do and becoming themselves. What are you wearing, and is there a story behind it? I am wearing an antique satin (wedding) dress from Carla’s collection.

ARTFULLY DRESSED: Women in the Art World

Mirjana Vrbaški Mirjana is a Serbian photographer. She was born in Montreal, but grew up in Belgrade, Serbia. After completing her BA in Literature in Canada, Mirjana turned to photography, graduating from the Royal Academy of Art in The Hague. Though she never imagined herself photographing people, during her studies she received the Taylor Wessing Portrait Award at the National Portrait Gallery in London. This has inspired her to keep exploring portraiture ever since. Mirjana's ongoing portrait series Verses of Emptiness has since been nominated for various photography prizes, exhibited internationally at, among others, Fotomuseum Den Haag, Transformer Station in Cleveland, and Kunsthalle Darmstadt, and included in various public and private collections. Mirjana lives and works in Berlin. Could you tell us something about your role in the art world? As for any other artist, my role is to translate my personal experience into an expression that touches on universal consciousness, that touches and affects as broad a segment of society as possible. My way of doing this is by photographing women and in particular, by using long concentrated portrait sessions to ‘peel’ off their outer, more constructed layers and ‘sculpt’ them inwards, until I reach a more honest, more universal humanity in them – a process that is deeply moving to me. What did you enjoy about being a part of this project? As a photographer and a portraitist, it was incredibly valuable to me to step over to the other side, to understand the sitter’s experience and the extent of giving, abandoning oneself, and trusting involved in posing for an artist. Though it can be mistaken for vanity, offering yourself as ‘material’ for an artist’s vision is one of the highest forms of generosity. Do you have a favourite artist? I am drawn to artists whose work grips me on an emotional, even subconscious level. I’m not good with intellectual or conceptual work. I need emotional impact and an element of enigma. Artists that have such an effect on me are Michael Borremans, Adrian Ghenie, Dirk Braeckman, Awoiska van der Molen. What is your earliest memory involving art? At seven or eight, asking my mother how does one know when a work of art is good, and her answering plainly: ‘When you wouldn’t change anything about it’. Do you have any special thoughts about the position of women in the art world? Women bring a fantastic plethora of complex, profound expressions and positions to the art world, much like they do to any other area of life. Their value is irreplaceable, and irreversible progress is being made in assuring their equal recognition and representation in the art world. It is every woman’s responsibility to resist status quo. As long as she does, success is inevitable. What are you wearing, and is there a story behind it? Carla’s studio was a true wonder, full of curiosities and an incredible collection of beautiful dresses, ballroom dresses, old-fashioned dresses, modern dresses – an entire universe of materials, textures and colours. Amid all that flamboyance, I suddenly spotted a small piece of something I guessed could be a kimono. Its pattern calmed me. Putting it on, I felt grounded, protected from the colourful chaos around me. Both Carla and I knew immediately – this is it, this resonates so completely with who I am.

ARTFULLY DRESSED: Women in the Art World

Debra Weiss Debra was born in the east coast village of Brightlingsea in Essex and took a Foundation in Fine Art and Printmaking at Colchester art school, completing a B.A. in Fine Art at Brighton Art School. She trained in painting conservation at the Weiss Gallery studios, and in the Netherlands, Utrecht from 1980 – 1984. Debra has worked as conservator for the Weiss Gallery since 1984. She also trained as a silversmith under Richard Whitehouse in 2014. In 2018 she became the owner of The Sentinel Gallery and Studio, Wivenhoe, England. Could you tell us something about your role in the art world? At The Sentinel Gallery I promote modern art and jewellery, and have my silver-smithing, painting and picture conservation studios. A lifetime restoring 16th and 17th century northern European portraits for the Weiss Gallery has inspired my love of the face – the mystery of a glance or turn of the head. I adore costume and especially reflected light on skin. The interaction between the sitter and viewer intrigues me, as every portrait hints at the story of a life lived. A few years ago I started silver-smithing, giving me the joy of fashioning metal and combining it with gem stones. I have always been fascinated by the jewellery in the historical portraits I restore and I decided that I could bring my combined passions of jewellery, costume and portraiture together by creating miniature portraits in individually designed silver settings. These are my most recent passion. What did you enjoy about being a part of this project? I was thrilled to experience the passion, and have a small insight into the process, of Carla's work. Do you have a favourite artist? Growing up with artist parents who were collectors and exhibitors of art, I have an interest in many diverse forms of art. I have a very long list of 'favourite' artists – from Roman encaustic wax painters, to the wonderfully sensitive eye of Holbein the Younger, to the jewellery of Gerda Flockinger who explored the breaking down of traditional treatments of metals. What is your earliest memory involving art? My earliest memories are of the creativity of my parents as artists and collectors of art, of silently sitting in the corner of my father’s studio watching him work. Do you have any special thoughts about the position of women in the art world? Women have historically had to fight to claim their place in the art world. Many women artists have been overlooked because their visionary ideas didn’t fit in with the idea of what being an artist was in a world dominated by men. What are you wearing, and is there a story behind it? A turquoise silk strapless dress with boned bodice and many layers of net under the skirt, a black lace scarf, a miniature that I made and fabrics by Watts of Westminster. When I was at Brighton art school, forty-odd years ago, I used to wander round the second-hand clothes shops looking for dresses from the ‘30s and ‘40s, which in those days you could still find, and which I loved to wear every day. In one back-street shop, the colour of turquoise flashed out from the rails. A lover of all things blue, I had to buy this totally unsuitable dress for daily life. I have only worn it twice in those forty years, of which this was the second time! Why do I feel the need for it to follow me through my life?

Exhibited at The Weiss Ga"ery (16 - 31 May 2018)

ARTFULLY DRESSED: Women in the Art World

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ARTFULLY DRESSED: Women in the Art World

The Weiss Gallery 59 Jermyn Street London SW1Y 6LX +44(0)207 409 0035 www.weissgallery.com