Inez de Brauw
I am drawn to elements of architecture, interiors and artifacts, that possibly can reflect on aspects of our current society. Particularly, I’m interested in how objects that represented old values found a different meaning in current times.
Inez de Brauw (1991, Netherlands) creates paintings that explore how images shape and reshape our understanding of history, taste, and desire. Her recent works draw on 17th-century gallery paintings, in which artworks are shown within artworks. By layering, erasing, and repainting these scenes, she questions who is visible and who is left out. Figures appear and disappear, and roles shift, especially those of women traditionally depicted as muses. Through these subtle changes, De Brauw reflects on how history is edited over time and who has the power to define it.
Across her practice, De Brauw is interested in how images move between past and present. Earlier works were inspired by interiors from lifestyle magazines, showing how ideals of living circulate between images and reality. De Brauw translates these layered references into painting through techniques such as ebru (water marbling), plaster, and moiré effects created with black threads. These material interventions disrupt the image, drawing attention to processes of copying, framing, and revision that connect historical painting with contemporary visual culture.
