Flemish Mask Painting

Miles Ladin is a photographic artist born, raised, and working in New York City. His art explores contemporary society, both mainstream and the world of privilege, from a critical standpoint. Whether focusing on New York City black tie galas, the world of high fashion, the ritual of swimming pool bathing or other subjects, his work is a visual commentary about wealth, power, fame, desire and identity. Dark humor and visual complexity permeate his artistic vision. His photography relating to celebrity culture has been internationally published, exhibited, and collected. In addition to photographic prints, his practice includes artist’s books that integrate ideas about literature, biography, and narrative. These editions include the 2015 “Supermodels at the End of Time”, which is included in the MoMA / Franklin Furnace Artist Book Collection. This volume combined Ladin’s photography from the 1990s with text by Bret Easton Ellis. In 2016 Ladin created an installation for Hudson Guild, NY that combined 20 years of his imagery that formed a sardonic commentary on the American Dream. In the last few years, Ladin has been developing a long-term body of work titled Ensor Suite, relating to the Flemish painter James Ensor. The project includes photography of zombie costumers in Asbury Park, NJ and carnival participants in Ostend, Belgium where Ensor worked. For Ladin, the contemporary costumers represent a growing mainstream titillation with pain, suffering, decay, and death. While working on this project, Ladin has expanded his studio practice to include mixed media, drawing, and painting. The gallows humor reflected in his previous pictures of the rich and famous is now brought into play with these recent works that takes the viewer into the world of comic-con, zombie parades, and the famed Flemish carnival of painter James Ensor. Work from Ensor Suite was recently on display in Ladin’s 2019 solo exhibition Masquerade at the Java Project, Brooklyn.