Fine Art nominee

Van Zeijl's fascination for blending traditions, history, symbols, and craftsmanship lead her
to the designs of Dutch award-winning, fashion designer Claes Iversen. He expresses the character and emotions of women, extending and enhancing the shape of the feminine body. Van Zeijl frames herself in Iversen's designs and blends historical icons with contemporary symbols to create timeless icons. In her new series Van Zeijl will put her own artful stamp on female beauty ideals.

At first glance one might mistake Van Zeijl’s portraits for long lost subversive portrayals of noble women painted by the Northern Renaissance painters and Ducth Golden Age masters. Though the exploration and manipulation of the visual vocabulary of the past and the implementation of modern photographic technology, her work possess a timeless beauty that transcends the boundaries of epoch and media.

Fascinated by the art of the past and different perspectives on beauty through the ages, Fine Art Photographer Isabelle van Zeijl explores the aesthetics and technics of the past to re-invent a contemporary art work in her practice. Boundaries fade as she blends techniques and idiom of the old masters with present-day aesthetics to create striking portraits. By evoking both alienation and recognition, while addressing our collective memory, her photographs seduce the audience.
By framing her own appearance within the broader context of the classical canon Van Zeijl explores beauty. Digitally composing her photographs like a painter by using techniques of the past, her work never compromises on authenticity. Even though she is both creator, object and subject, her fine art photography reaches beyond the genre of self-portraiture, creating a universal woman and a vision of female aesthetics over time. With each portrait Isabelle gets closer to both her personal truth and an all-embracing meaning of beauty that transcends time and age.
Van Zeijl has shown work continuously and internationally over the past ten years, represented by galleries located in The UK, The Netherlands, and New York and exhibiting at emerging and established international art fairs in New York, Miami.