"I like to play with balance and time. By connecting the past and present, I create a surreal sense of time. Like there is no time in the image, a frozen moment, kind of floating."
SmithDavidson Gallery is the official gallery for Marie Cecile Thijs with access to the full collection.
Influences reminiscent of the 17th century Old Masters are recurrent in the work of Marie Cecile Thijs, yet her personal interpretation is completely contemporary. The artist places her subjects in an alternative world by bringing them to life unexpectedly, or, on the contrary, freezing them in time and space. Objects become characters. They move away from their daily realities, assuming a new and unexpected identity. Tranquility, motion and sometimes also humor meet.
In the works of Marie Cecile Thijs therefore, the unusual is usual. Combining surreal imagery and contrasts between light and dark, she shows us fantastical still lifes from her imagined reality, a fusion between abstract and figurative elements.
Marie Cecile Thijs is specialized in staged photography, and has created multiple series including White Collar, Human Angels, Amazons, Horses, Flowers, Birds & Vases, Majestic and Food Portraits. Alongside her free work, Marie Cecile is also a renowned portrait photographer and her work has graced a multitude of book and magazine covers of influential writers, cooks, politicians, designers and other artists.
Series by Marie Cecile Thijs have been published in several media, including prominent long-time features in Dutch paper Het Financieele Dagblad and French newspaper Le Monde. Her work has been included in the collections of the Rijksmuseum Amsterdam, Museum aan het Vrijthof Maastricht, LAM Museum Lisse, the Museum of Photographic Arts San Diego, the National Museum of History and Art in Luxembourg, the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts in Richmond and many public and private art collections.
You’re entering the surreal world of Marie Cecile Thijs: portraits of people, animals, flowers and food, they all bear her specific signature. Stillness is key.