exhibition

Viviane Sassen

PHOSPHOR: Art & Fashion

The exhibition PHOSPHOR: Art & Fashion comprises more than 200 works of the Dutch fashion photographer and artist Viviane Sassen. It is the first large-scale retrospective of the Dutch fashion photographer in the Netherlands, revealing over thirty years of her multifaceted career and bringing together photography, collage, painting and video.

Nude self-portrait in BW
Self Portrait, 1990Viviane Sassen and Stevenson (Johannesburg / Cape Town / Amsterdam).
Collage of painted bodies and leaves
Blue Alchemy, from the series Modern Alchemy, 2022Viviane Sassen and Stevenson (Johannesburg / Cape Town / Amsterdam).
Girl in tennis dress
Adidas x Pharell, 2017Viviane Sassen and Stevenson (Johannesburg / Cape Town / Amsterdam).
Man carrying child on his head
A girl and a horse
Dior, 2019Viviane Sassen and Stevenson (Johannesburg / Cape Town / Amsterdam).

About the exhibition

The Dutch contemporary artist Viviane Sassen rapidly gained worldwide recognition, both in the fashion industry and in the photography world. Her distinctive and eclectic visual oeuvre fills almost the entire building of Foam. This exhibition sheds light on Sassen’s creative process by focusing on two main themes: the incessant search for new photographic forms and the importance of intimacy in her work.

Sassen's oeuvre explores both the depths of human emotion and the boundaries of artistic expression. Death, sexuality, desire and connection with others are all motifs that structure her work. Renowned for her adept use of saturated colours, mastery of light and shadow, and distinctive depictions of the human body, Sassen's work is a testament to her artistic language. For Sassen, photography is a magical medium. For her, photography is like a mirror that reflects what is already inside us, and likewise a portal to another universe with infinite possibilities.

Eudocimus Ruber, from the series Of Mud and Lotus, 2017 © Viviane Sassen and Stevenson (Johannesburg / Cape Town / Amsterdam).

For more information or press requests, please contact our press office at pressoffice@foam.org.

PHOSPHOR: Art & Fashion is organized in collaboration with the MEP - Maison Européenne de la Photographie, Paris.

This exhibition is made possible by the Blockbusterfonds, Fonds 21, Mondriaan Fonds, BeamSystems and Riwi ColloType.

Foam thanks Stichting Foam Friends and Foam Fund for their generous support of this exhibition.

Media partner: de Volkskrant.


Two people looking to each other with a big red moon in the background

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Viviane Sassen

PHOSPHOR: Art & Fashion