Corine Vermeulen solo exhibition SHADOW WORKS at ArtClvb Space / Newlab Detroit

Thu, Jan 23 - Fri, Feb 28  2025

ArtClvb, 2050 - 15th Street Detroit, MI 48216

ArtClvb Space at Newlab in Detroit presents SHADOW WORKS, a solo exhibition by Corine Vermeulen from January 23 until February 28, 2025.

SHADOW WORKS reflect a deeply personal journey of reckoning, recovery, and renewal. The exhibition presents two interwoven series that speak to one another across time. The Klonopin Pictures builds upon the abstract language established in Kodak and the Comet, sourced from the artist’s personal archive of exposed film negatives.

Created mostly during the pandemic, this series reflects a long-standing battle with chronic fatigue syndrome and the aftermath of withdrawing from prescribed benzodiazepines. By incorporating powdered Klonopin into the chemical process used to alter the film negatives, the work produces intricate patterns that echo the psychedelic nature of the withdrawal process. These abstractions bridge psychological and external realities, transforming earlier depictions of the Detroit landscape into painterly compositions, at once complicating the notion of photography as a record of time and of history on both a personal and civic scale.

Find a converation between Corine Vermeulen and Nancy Barr, Department Head in the Prints, Drawings and Photographs department and the James Pearson Duffy Curator of Photography curator at the Detroit Institute of Art, here.

About the Artist

Born in the Netherlands, Vermeulen has based her studio practice in Detroit since 2006. Corine Vermeulen’s photographic work addresses notions of identity, belonging, memory, and loss through various forms, navigating between representation and abstraction. Best known for her long-term, immersive documentary projects, her recent work draws on the visual language of surrealism and abstract painting.

She earned a BFA cum laude from the Design Academy Eindhoven in the Netherlands, and an MFA in photography from the Cranbrook Academy of Art. She was awarded a 2009 Kresge Artist Fellowship and a 2018 McAndless Distinguished Professor in the Humanities Fellowship at Eastern Michigan University. Currently a lecturer at the College for Creative Studies in Detroit, Vermeulen is a former mentor in The New York Foundation for the Arts (NYFA) Immigrant Artist Program.