Carla van de Puttelaar, Untitled, 2006.
LOS ANGELES, CA.- Kopeikin Gallery is presenting Sculptural Skin by Dutch artist Carla van de Puttelaar. This exhibtion marks van de Puttelaars first presentation with Kopeikin Gallery.
Best known for her luminous nude studies characterized by their exquisite use of light and subtle color, van de Puttelaar's pictures engage the sense of touch almost as much as the sense of sight. Human skin becomes its own landscape  a place where every freckle, crease, and mark is a noted event. This exhibition showcases work from 1998 to the present where van de Puttelaars photographs, whether of women or flowers, tread a fine line between the sensual and an almost medical dispassion. Shot against darkened backgrounds, and illuminated by the special quality of natural Dutch light, the works create a daring fusion of beauty and realism enabled by the artists careful control of composition.
Van de Puttelaar photographs of nude and semi nude women have a chaste and serene effect rather than explicitly seductive. The female nudes are in repose with eyes closed rebuffing any engagement with the viewer. The nudes are full length and photographed from overhead. The poses are similar but the body language differentiates each nude as some appear serene and others appear guarded with a hand across their chest or hip. There is a starkness between the paleness of the womens skin set against the black background and lack of engagement between the viewer and the nude that mediates any erotic tone in the image, what remains is romantic and real.
Carla van de Puttelaar (b. 1967) is a graduate of the Gerrit Rietveld Academie in Amsterdam. Her work has been exhibited in The Netherlands, Hungary, Germany, Belgium, France, Spain, Korea and the United States. Collections holding Puttelaar's work include Museum Winterhur (Switzerland), Huis Marseille Museum voor Fotografie (The Netherlands), Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs (The Netherlands) and several private collections. She has had her work published in numerous press publications, with a monograph published by Le Caillou Bleu (Belgium) in 2008.