Juul Kraijer
Assen, NL, 1970 Works and lives in Rotterdam
Juul Kraijer (born in Assen, 1970; lives and works in Rotterdam) surrounds her contemplative human figures with animals, often not the cuddliest of creatures. Having completed her studies at Willem de Kooning Academy in Rotterdam, Kraijer frequently travelled to India, which was an important source of inspiration to her. Her work is exhibited internationally and features in collections at institutions including MoMA in New York, the Louis Vuitton Foundation in Paris, The Kunstpalast Museum in Dusseldorf, the Kupferstichkabinett in Berlin, MUMOK in Vienna, Boijmans Van Beuningen in Rotterdam, Kunstmuseum Den Haag in The Hague, and Huis Marseille Museum for Photography in Amsterdam.
The magic of photography for me lies in being able to extract a lasting image from an ephemeral and near to impossible situation I've painstakingly set up in my studio. Or in the case of the unchoreographable behaviour of animals I've set all the parameters and then let chance happen, lying in wait for that extraordinary position of the scorpion on the models face. My images operate on the intersection of illusion and reality.” Juul Kraijer, 2016