Justine Tjallinks

Justine Tjallinks (1984) is a Dutch artist who aims to capture the uniqueness of individuals and the diversity of human beauty, often backed by a story of social importance. Throughout her art practice, she has examined the unusual, that is often ignored by or disapproved of by the public. Her works give expression to the fact that it is okay to be different and that this is something to be embraced and encouraged.

Although not self portraits in a literal sense, Tjallinks’ works share an intimate, personal visualisation of her inner emotional state of being, reflecting life experiences and how she deals with them. Like in many of the portraits of the old Master Painters of the Golden Age that inspired her, the individuals depicted by Tjallinks often look at the viewer, no matter his or her standing point. Their gaze often breathes a sense of melancholia, an emotional state that has always fascinated Tjallinks.

Even though her work shares this quality with the Masters of the past, her aim is to always remain within the contemporary zeitgeist and to create her own language. Over recent years, Tjallinks’ became inspired by Magic/Neo-Realism, artists from the first half of the 20th century. Similar to their craftsmanship, she seeks control over painting techniques, orchestrates sublime color palettes and composes somewhat uncanny otherworldly visualisations, thereby granting herself the freedom to blur the lines between fantasy and reality in her work.

After sketching, scouting and shooting, she spends countless hours editing an image. Similar to a painter’s process, Tjallinks continues adding and changing digital brush strokes until a balance is reached and a work comes alive. Only then a work is finished and becomes a self in its own right. Tjallinks works have been exhibited in several group and solo shows and she has won several international photography awards, including Fine Art Photographer of the year 2019 (Fine Art photography Awards). In 2021 her first monograph PastPresent was published by new Heroes and Pioneers.