Daniëlle van Ark

In her photographs and installations, Dutch artist Daniëlle van Ark tackles such loaded themes as mortality, social hierarchy, and the passage of time, as well as art-historical concerns like the value and presentation of artworks. In pursuit of these discussions, van Ark has employed methods of appropriation and undertaken extensive research. Notably, the artist embarked upon a major series for which she gained access to and photographed the back rooms of countless natural history museums, her subjects being stowed taxidermy animals. “I am a conceptual documentary photographer—I never move or touch the animals,” van Ark has said. “The idea is that I take photos of how the work was put away, and that is where the absurd comes from.”

Van Ark has exhibited her work throughout Europe. She lives and works in Amsterdam.