Ruud van Empel: Photoworks 1995-2010

Dutch visual artist Ruud van Empel (1958) hardly needs any introduction. He is one of the most extraordinary photographic artists at this time. Van Empel has developed a unique working method within digital photography. The images he compiles display a hallucinatory world primarily populated by children and dreamy adolescents. By referring to immemorial notions of virtue and innocence, Van Empel's works are interesting from both an art-historical and cultural-historical angle.

Feast for the eye
Despite all their marvelous beauty, these works are far from unambiguous. Something is not quite right. What is real and what isn't? And is it all quite as endearing as it appears at first sight? This aspect gives the work of Ruud van Empel a fascinating depth, in addition to the enormous spread of color and wealth of detail that make his work a feast for the eye.

Held at the Groninger Museum, the exhibition Ruud van Empel. Photoworks 1995-2010 is the first large-scale museum overview of the work of Van Empel.

World 19, 2006

@Ruud van Empel / Flatland Gallery (Utrecht, Paris)