From Southbank to Mayfair, The Wapping Project Bankside has upped sticks to London’s trendy Dover Street. Occupying the top floor of 18th century Ely House, where antique dealer Mallett is based, the photography and film gallery opens its doors today [Thursday 18 September] with an exhibition of work by Dutch photographer Juul Kraijer.
[bjp_ad_slot]The exhibition is Kraijer’s first solo outing in the UK, and features a number of the photographer’s Surrealism-inspired photographs. Subverting expectations of what traditional portrait photography might entail, Kraijer seeks to manipulate reality, using models as vehicles for ideas rather than as subjects in ‘straight’ portraits. Sometimes she uses creatures in her images to question the traditional hierarchies between human and animal, model and accessory; a snake, for example, may be draped around the model’s head as if it were a headpiece.
“I discovered Juul Kraijer’s work in September 2013, at an exhibition in Amsterdam’s exquisite photography gallery, the 18th century Huis Marseille,” says gallery director Jules Wright. “Two months later I staged a contemporary photography exhibition in London’s equally beautiful Ely House. I saw instantly that Juul’s unsettling work would sit perfectly within this building.”
Wright, who founded the gallery in October 2009, decided to move to the new premises when the lease for the Bankside space came to an end earlier this year. She continues to represent photographers who include: Elina Brotherus, Susan Meiselas, Edgar Martins, and Paolo Roversi, among others.
Juul Kraijer runs from 18 September until 30 October at The Wapping Project Bankside-Mayfair.
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