Flesh & the Mirror | The Self-Image of Rebecca Fontaine-Wolf

Institutional Solo Show at Haus Kunst Mitte | Berlin across 9 Rooms

Introduction by curator Dr. Anna Havemann

Haus Kunst Mitte presents Rebecca Fontaine-Wolf's inaugural exhibition in Berlin, titled Flesh & the Mirror – The Self-Image of Rebecca Fontaine-Wolf. This exhibition showcases a series of works created over the past four years, renowned for their innovative imagery and distinctive technique, which both captivate and impress.

Fontaine-Wolf's art boldly challenges conventional views on gender, sexuality, and identity. In opposition to the male gaze’s tendency for appropriation, she confidently asserts her own explicitly female body as a central theme. Her work embraces baroque drama, using electrifying light contrasts, asymmetrical compositions, reflective surfaces, and sensory materials. Ecstasy and eroticism are depicted in a liberating and performative way.

In many of her pieces, the artist positions her headless body among animal carcasses, piles of fruit, feathers, and velvet. Mirrors—a recurring motif in her work—reflect and distort, creating uncanny spaces where her limbs are fragmented, twisted, or duplicated in bizarre ways. These surreal visual worlds blur the line between the depicted and the real. By using her own body as both material and subject, Fontaine-Wolf exposes and challenges societal expectations surrounding gender roles and the female body.

Her work engages with traditional misogynistic motifs like Vanitas and Memento Mori, subverting the long-established portrayal of the female nude shaped by the white male gaze. Honoring her personal experiences, Fontaine-Wolf's practice embodies a profound openness to other perceptions and interpretations, firmly situating her as a 21st-century feminist artist. While her art does not aim to prove specific theses, it remains inherently political in nature, deconstructing the representation of women in art, advertising, cinema, and media.

Born in Australia in 1982, Fontaine-Wolf grew up in Germany and England. She studied painting at the University for the Creative Arts and Wimbledon College of Arts in London. Shortly before the pandemic, she moved to Portugal and has since split her time between Lisbon and London. As a trained painter, she began incorporating digital elements into her creative process in response to the rapid rise of digital communication during the pandemic. This evolution has led to her current body of work: large-scale, conceptually driven photographs that blend digital techniques with elements of painting and collage.

Her pieces can be understood as self-portraits in a broad sense, focusing on her own body depicted in fragmented, deformed, or mirrored states, and occasionally appearing dissected. Fontaine-Wolf takes on the roles of model, photographer, and director all at once. Unlike earlier female artists who adopted different personas, she integrates her headless, naked body into symbolically rich settings inspired by historical imagery. Her work frequently plays with art historical references, reflecting her deep knowledge of feminist critiques of the male-dominated art canon.