Merel Klomp and Elmar Janse

Dutch artists Elmar Janse (b. 1994) and Merel Klomp (b. 1997), alumni of the Willem de Kooning Academy (2018), explore how the grounding presence of nature influences the human inner state. Coming from a flat, urban environment, the duo feels an innate pull toward remote and rugged landscapes. They capture these vast spaces as a vital counterweight to the overwhelming pace of modern society.

As highly observant individuals, they experience the world with a sensory intensity that translates into a fast-moving mind. In their work, they seek quietude, finding that nature’s rhythms offer a profound space for reflection and calm. They travelled from France and Norway to Iceland to create a body of work. Through photography and film, their ongoing series from The Glacier Project captures the ephemeral beauty of Europe’s glaciers, tracing the transformation of ice into water, and landscape into memory.

Moving away from heavily loaded narratives of decay, they choose instead to focus on the abstract beauty and geometry of these pristine environments, believing that awe is the first step toward understanding. Their work has been exhibited internationally, from the Netherlands to Iceland. Driven by an urgency to document what may be gone tomorrow, their work becomes an ode to the current and next generations. Above all, it remains an invitation to pause and step into the sublime.