Isabelle Van Zeijl

Isabelle Van Zeijl, I Am I, C-print mounted on dibond, perspex face

2019

Recognized for her mastery to create striking self-portraits with depth and meaning, Isabelle van Zeijl’s work dips into the post-modern to craft a vision of feminine power that will have you questioning both historical and 21st-century concepts of beauty. van Zeijl produces the scenes entirely independently; she is model, creator, object and subject. Her work possesses a timeless beauty, transcending the boundaries of epoch and media. As a woman, she experiences prejudices and misogyny including sex-based discrimination, belittling, violence, and sexual objectification. “I asked myself what human being do I need to forge myself into, and how can I use my burden to bring light to make a change in the world? I decided to turn my eye to all that was beautiful around me." van Zeijl aestheticizes these prejudices in her work to visually discuss this troubling dichotomy, presenting a new way of seeing female beauty, the reinvention of the self. Her work soothes the eye and touches the soul, to encourage the viewer to reconnect with their own higher calling, their soulful longing; Reminding viewers to deepen their courage and humility, empower self-inquiry and ask themselves to find that beauty is always there. van Zeijl has shown work continuously and internationally over the past seventeen years, represented by galleries located in The USA, UK and Europe, and exhibiting at established international art fairs in New York, Miami, Los Angeles, Hong Kong, London, Germany, Belgium, Sweden and Italy. She was one of the winners of The Young Masters Emerging Women Art Prize, London. Her work is held in The Four Seasons Hotel in Paris and in numerous & public collections in the USA, UK, Belgium, Germany, France and The Netherlands.