juul kraijer (1970)
Juul Kraijer is a Dutch visual artist. Her work has been exhibited internationally, and is included in major museum collections such as the Museum of Modern Art, New York City, the Museum of Old and New Art, Tasmania and the Kupferstichkabinett Berlin.
Her principal mediums are drawing, photography and collage. She occasionally makes sculptures and video-works.
Kraijer's works share an emblemata-like concision, showing no more than what is strictly necessary. In each image, the figure looms out of an undefined background. Definition of time is absent as well. No hairstyles or dress belonging to any specific period are shown, no hint of a narrative is present. The postures and facial expressions are deliberately restrained and intensely concentrated. They seem to have been adopted for eternity. Faces and bodies are a vehicle for meaning rather than portrayals of individuals. The impassive visage, in a state of half-sleep, seems to exist at an interface between self-awareness and self-extinction. The images elude traditional iconography. Kraijer creates naturalistic images that are memorably strange.
