The MEP is proud to present American Images, the first major retrospective devoted to Dutch artist Dana Lixenberg. Spanning more than three decades, the exhibition brings together a committed and deeply human body of work, weaving a multilayered portrait of the United States in which celebrities and lesser-known individuals are approached with equal care and portrayed with dignity.
Born in Amsterdam, Lixenberg sees the United States through the fresh, discerning eyes of a foreigner, offering a nuanced perspective on the myth of the American Dream. After arriving in New York in 1989, Dana Lixenberg began to develop a photographic language grounded in empathy, mutual trust, and attentive engagement. In doing so, her portraits offer a counter-narrative to prevailing media representations of America, a perspective that remains deeply relevant today.
The human figure is central to her work. Moving across a broad social spectrum, from public figures to those living at the margins, her portraits look beyond status, stripping away the distractions of social context to resist reductive readings. Treating her subjects with respect and curiosity, she reveals the human qualities of celebrities while bringing out the individuality and presence of lesser-known sitters. Her practice is shaped by what she often refers to as a “slow dance” with her subjects. This unhurried approach fosters a sense of connection. Working with a 4×5-inch view camera, a demanding instrument that requires rigor and concentration, she transforms each session into an intimate exchange anchored in a shared moment. Carefully composed and marked by unwavering attention to detail, from the tilt of a head to the curve of an arm, her work resists simplification and achieves a sharp visual clarity.
This exhibition is in co-production with Fundacion Mapfre
Dana Lixenberg (b. 1964, Amsterdam) is known for her stripped-down portraits that reveal the elemental qualities of her subjects. Working with a large-format view camera, she creates images rich in detail and texture. Their power lies in the relationship she forges with her sitters, strengthened by compositional rigor and a refusal of social stereotypes. After spending many years living in the United States, Lixenberg now divides her time between Amsterdam and New York; the sensibility shaped during those years resonates through out her work.
Her editorial career includes portraits of numerous cultural figures for publications such as The New Yorker, The New York Times Magazine, Vibe and Newsweek. She has developed a number of long-form projects alongside her commissions, each informing the other. These include De Wallen (2025), a portrait of Amsterdam’s historic red-light district; The Last Days of Shishmaref (2008), documenting an Iñupiaq community on an island off the coast of Alaska; and Jeffersonville, Indiana (2005), on an unhoused population in a small town. Her most ambitious project, Imperial Courts (1993–ongoing), begun in the aftermath of the 1992 Los Angeles uprisings, traces the lives of a public-housing community in Watts over more than three decades. Lixenberg’s project led to the book Imperial Courts 1993–2015 and was awarded the Deutsche Börse Photography Foundation Prize in 2017.
Dana Lixenberg lives and works in Amsterdam and New York. She studied photography at the London College of Printing (1984–86) and the Gerrit Rietveld Academie in Amsterdam (1987–89). Across her practice, major long-term projects are conceived as both photographic series and publications. Her work is held in numerous public and private collections and has been exhibited at institutions such as Aperture Foundation (New York), Mai Manó Ház (Budapest), the Rijksmuseum and the Stedelijk Museum (Amsterdam),the Centre Photographique (Rouen), MMK (Frankfurt), The Photographers’ Gallery (London), the Busan Biennale, Huis Marseille (Amsterdam), LACP (LosAngeles), and the Fotomuseum Den Haag (The Hague). She is represented by Grimm Gallery in Amsterdam, London, and New York.
Front image: Dana Lixenberg, DJ, 1993 © Dana Lixenberg Courtesy de l’artiste et de Grimm Amsterdam | London | New York
11 Feb – 24 May 2026
Leave a Reply