For MIART 2026 we present a shared booth, together with Red Lab Gallery Milano, where we will present the work of Dutch artist Carmen Schabracq (1988). The artist collects elements from mythology, folklore, cultural traditions, art history and her personal experiences and uses them to create her own visual narratives.
In our booth we will show works on paper, ceramic and textile masks and tapestries presented in combination with a mural. The artist's masks build on traditions of evil-defying sculpture and ornamentation found in architecture worldwide, such as gargoyles or antefixes. They often depict devilish figures, because evil is deterred by its own reflection. These sculptural masks are intended to protect a space and the people within. The artist's masks show her interpretations of devils and other apotropaic creatures she encountered during her research travels and residencies in Italy, Eastern Europe, the Netherlands and Mexico.
The shape of the vulva is also recognizable in several of her works. The vulva, representing birth, fertility and the female sex, stands in opposition to evil; This is related to the ancient Greek term “Anasyrma”, which is the gesture of lifting one's skirt and a deliberately provocative exposure of the naked genitals to ward off a supernatural enemy. These vulva-masks will be presented on a mural made out of a repetitive pattern of shapes representing the vulva, or the all-seeing eye.
The tapestries in the booth are contemporary interpretations of family crests and contain the symbolism of life-trees, in which the artist has made her personal family history collective. What do you take with you and pass on from your ancestors, and what, do you leave behind? Imagery such as vulvas on horseback depict literal and symbolic modes of migration through generations. The tapestries are a combination of patchwork, quilting and embroidery.
The artist's work emanates from feminine power and demonstrates this in the iconography of art history and in personal intergenerational storytelling. The work is a feminist statement, highlighting the symbol of the female sex to ward of evil, the humour of this fact and the positiveness of this strenght against the current conservative patriarchical and intolerant tendencies. It is not to be confused with the glorification of motherhood, which has become popular in conservative circles. Rather, the artist demonstrates that society flourishes when gender roles are broken and if there is more attention for the loving feminine powers in this world.
Carmen Schabracq, Migrating Roots III, 2025, appliqué, cotton, wool, silk embroidery yarn, human hair, steel and rope, 150 x 240 x 40 cm