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Paul Kooiker's FASHION Photography Exhibition: Surreal Art at Foam, Amsterdam

Delve into Kooiker's unique vision, where fashion photography transcends trends and explores subconscious desires in powerful imagery.

The Paul Kooiker: FASHION exhibition at Foam Fotografiemuseum Amsterdam presents a distinctive take on fashion photography. Explore how Kooiker transcends fleeting trends, creating surreal, self-contained narratives that delve into dark desires and subconscious dreams. His works, created with an iPhone, form an encompassing installation challenging perceptions of beauty and vanity.

About Paul Kooiker: FASHION at Foam Fotografiemuseum Amsterdam in Amsterdam

Read curatorial context and practical visitor information for Paul Kooiker: FASHION at Foam Fotografiemuseum Amsterdam in Amsterdam

Exhibition summary

Paul Kooiker's exhibition 'FASHION' showcases his distinctive approach to fashion photography, characterized by timelessness and surrealism. The artist captures major fashion brands and famous faces, transporting them into independent, dreamlike worlds that play on dark desires and subconscious themes.

Curatorial context

The exhibition 'FASHION' by Paul Kooiker at Foam Fotografiemuseum Amsterdam delves into the artist's unique perspective on contemporary fashion photography, which stands apart from fleeting trends due to its inherent timelessness. Kooiker portrays prominent fashion brands and well-known personalities, situating them within surreal, self-contained narratives that evoke cinematic stills and invite speculative storytelling. His work consciously breaks away from dominant beauty paradigms, cultivating an 'unmanageable' form of beauty that is less superficial and more Freudian, exploring dark desires, fetishisms, and subconscious dreams. Photography in this exhibition transcends conventional gender roles, with models in unusual poses and their identities often obscured, blurring the lines between human and doll. By magnifying the presentation of luxury objects, Kooiker ultimately captures our own desire. Notably, all works are created using an iPhone, using a tool of mass adoption to craft a parallel world detached and inimitable. 'FASHION' compiles a diverse array of images from his fashion commissions, forming an encompassing installation that functions as a hall of mirrors, halting the fashion industry's rapid pace and exposing the absurdity of human vanity and desire.

Admission and ticket notes

Foam offers interactive tours and walk-in workshops related to the exhibition, providing unique ways to experience 'FASHION' by Paul Kooiker. Further details can be found on the Foam website.

Paul Kooiker: FASHION key exhibition facts

Review exhibition status, schedule, venue context, and attribution details for Paul Kooiker: FASHION at Foam Fotografiemuseum Amsterdam in Amsterdam

Venue
Foam Fotografiemuseum Amsterdam
Current status
Open now
Exhibition schedule
Information not currently available
Artist line / attribution
Paul Kooiker (born 1964, Rotterdam) is a photographer known for his distinctive fashion work. He studied at the Royal Academy of Art in The Hague and the Rijksakademie van Beeldende Kunsten in Amsterdam. Kooiker received the Prix-de-Rome Photography in 1996 and the A. Roland Holst Award in 2009. His work has been exhibited internationally, including at Foam in 2006 with 'Paradise Twenty-One'. He is represented by tegenboschvanvreden (NL) and Galerie Zink (DE).
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