Lonneke van der Palen is a woman of many talents. Be it plastic bags, portraits or still lifes, van der Palen creates vivid and surreal photographs from whatever she captures. We’ve been tracking her career since her debut at UNSEEN in 2014, and it’s high time you knew about her too.
Van der Palen’s highly constructed photographs demonstrate an almost mathematical approach to colour and design, transforming the ordinary into the extraordinary. By playing with illusion and reality, her surreal photographs take on a vibrant, almost magical quality. “What I like about photography, is that magic comes to life,” she told SLEEK. “You create illusions far from reality, but present it as reality.”
Since graduating from the Royal Academy of Art in The Hague, van der Palen has gone strength to strength. Her work has been exhibited at Foam Museum and Unseen photo fair, and she’s shot for magazines such as Numero, Le Monde d‘Hermès and Wallpaper*. She also contributed the Cabinet for the most recent issue of SLEEK. Shot in Cape Town, South Africa, the Cabinet sees van der Palen exposing the beauty in plastic bags.
To purchase or see more of Lonneke van der Palen’s work, please visit SLEEK art.
van der Palen’s work is available on SLEEK art.