Iris van Dongen
I enjoy making circles in time. I wonder what 'progress' means. I look for objects belonging to our time and merge them with portraits, turning them, simultaneously, into contemporary images.
Iris van Dongen via Algemeen Dagblad, 2009
The sultry gazes and potent swagger in Iris van Dongen’s (1975, the Netherlands) work attract us with a style that combines the elegance of pre-Raphaelite painting with the stern glamour of film noir heroines. Emerging from a sensuous haze they recall both in form and in style the allegorical heroines of symbolist painting. Oftentimes depicted in richly hued pastel on paper, they nonetheless project a sense of force both enigmatic and entirely realistic.
