Suzanne Jongmans builds poised, Renaissance-inflected portraits from materials most of us bin without a thought. Velvet drapery, deep-toned grounds, and composed sitters conjure the atmosphere of Leonardo da Vincis Lady with an Ermine (148991) and Antonello da Messinas Portrait of a Young Man (c. 1470), while everyday castoffs turn up as unexpectedly opulent details.
Materials, references, and quiet contrasts
Padded packaging and the foam mesh that cushions fruit become cuffs, ruffs, and sculptural trims. Against dark backgrounds and in lush fabrics, these humble elements meet the dignity of classical pose, a tension that sharpens the works refined mood. Recently, Jongmans has added warm metallic accents by salvaging copper coils from the electric motors of disused household appliances and from fuses, extending her vocabulary of reclaimed parts.
That sensibility runs through Kindred Spirits Childhood, an inkjet print on Hahnem fchle paper (edition of 8 + 2 AP, 60 x 75 centimeters), and In Resonance, also an inkjet print on Hahnem fchle paper (edition of 10 + 2 A.P., 84 x 90.5 centimeters), where the play between material poverty and visual richness feels especially acute. Across the series, solemn bearing and pared-back settings amplify the historical dialogue with Renaissance portraiture.
Themes and selected works
Jongmans threads the work with reflections on gender roles and topics that still unsettle polite society, including breastfeeding in public. She examines femininity, individuality, and what it means to hide and reveal, using concealment as a way to ask how wonder survives in a moment when technology, the machinery of progress, and revisionist tendencies strain our ties to nature, to history, and to each other. She describes her practice as probing the threshold between the material and the immateriala meeting point for societies, eras, emotions, and even cosmic forces. In her own words, since the Enlightenment, reason has been elevated and a Western push toward modernization and mechanization has intensified, while myths and imagination have faded from everyday life.
Several recent pieces anchor these ideas in specific images: In the Midst of It All , an inkjet print on Hahnem fchle paper (44 x 60 centimeters), is a self-portrait made during the pandemic that urges a slower pace and reconnection with ones surroundings and self. Other works include Kindred Spirits Present (inkjet print on Hahnem fchle paper, edition of 8 + 2 AP, 75 x 95 centimeters), Lifting the Veils (inkjet print on Hahnem fchle paper, edition of 8 + 2 A.P., 75 x 68 centimeters), Guidance (2024, inkjet print on Hahnem fchle paper, edition of 10 + 2 A.P., 95 x 75 centimeters), Brotherhood (inkjet print on Hahnem fchle paper, edition of 8 + 2 A.P., 87 x 87 centimeters), and Valentino blue (inkjet print on Hahnem fchle paper).
By looking back, Jongmans creates resolutely current pictures that probe how we assign worthto objects, images, and the stories we keep.
