Paris Photo 2025 - Ron Mandos

ABOUT THE FAIR

Galerie Ron Mandos is proud to announce its first participation in Paris Photo, one of the leading international art fairs dedicated to photography and image-based art (taking place from November 13–16 in the Grand Palais, Paris).

For this edition, the gallery presents a selection of works by Isaac Julien, Erwin Olaf, Gilleam Trapenberg and Kevin Osepa:

Isaac Julien
For Paris Photo 2025, a special highlight is Isaac Julien’s Trussed (1996), a suite of four black-and-white photographs that explore desire, trust, and queer intimacy through stylized, mirrored imagery. These are among Julien’s earliest photo-based works made for the gallery context, and are being shown together for the first time. Alongside them are photographs from his recent series Once Again… (Statues Never Die) (2022), which explores the intertwined histories of African art, colonialism, and modernism. Drawing on Julien’s research into the relationship between philosopher Alain Locke—key figure of the Harlem Renaissance—and art collector Albert C. Barnes, these cinematic compositions examine how African art was framed and collected in the West, revealing the tensions between cultural appreciation and appropriation.

Erwin Olaf
A selection of photographs from across the career of Dutch artist Erwin Olaf (1959–2023) showcases his lifelong exploration of beauty, identity, and power. Known for his precisely staged, cinematic images, Olaf’s work probes social conventions and the desire for control, while giving visibility to marginalised individuals, including members of the LGBTQ+ community and people of colour. His richly composed portraits seamlessly blend perfection and vulnerability, reflecting his unique combination of technical mastery and emotional depth.

Kevin Osepa
Works by Curaçaoan–Dutch artist Kevin Osepa explore Afro-Caribbean identity, brua spirituality, queerness, and memory. Using photography and film, Osepa weaves together landscapes, rituals, and myths from Curaçao to address the lasting effects of colonialism on contemporary identity. His vivid, symbol-laden images often merge reality and magical realism, transforming everyday life into spaces of spiritual and cultural reclamation.

Gilleam Trapenberg
Gilleam Trapenberg turns away from the postcard clichés of Caribbean life to reveal its social complexity, spirituality, and postcolonial realities. His images strike a balance between allure and critique, addressing how Western media perpetuate reductive notions of paradise while overlooking lived experiences. Trapenberg’s photography reflects a personal negotiation between his Caribbean roots and his life in the Netherlands, highlighting the layered, multifaceted nature of island identity.

About the fair

Art fair images

Installation view, Galerie Ron Mandos at Paris Photo 2025, Grand Palais Éphémère, Paris

FAIR ARTWORKS

Trussed IV, 1996 Isaac Julien

Trussed III, 1996 Isaac Julien

Trussed II, 1996 Isaac Julien

Trussed I, 1996 Isaac Julien

Diasporic Dream-Space No. 2 (Once Again... Statues Never Die), 2022 Isaac Julien

Iolaus / In the Life (Once Again... Statues Never Die), 2022 Isaac Julien

Black Apollo (Once Again... Statues Never Die), 2022 Isaac Julien

Orisa's Return (Once Again... Statues Never Die), 2022 Isaac Julien

Amelia, 2023 Gilleam Trapenberg

Shurendy, 2024 Gilleam Trapenberg

Dex, 2024 Gilleam Trapenberg

Shaenety, 2024 Gilleam Trapenberg

Quinsley, 2023 Gilleam Trapenberg

Chamo, 2023 Gilleam Trapenberg

119 (New Suns), 2023 Gilleam Trapenberg

018 (New Suns), 2020 Gilleam Trapenberg

098 (New Suns), 2020 Gilleam Trapenberg

113 (New Suns), 2020 Gilleam Trapenberg

088 (New Suns), 2020 Gilleam Trapenberg

133 (New Suns), 2023 Gilleam Trapenberg

Irene blousa prinsipal, 2025 Kevin Osepa

La Protektora, Klof, Village of Spirits, 2022 Kevin Osepa

Kokolishi Kalakuna, Klof, Village of Spirits, 2022 Kevin Osepa

Cheiba, 2024 Kevin Osepa

Ser’i bientu, 2024 Kevin Osepa

Hotel, Winston Salem, Sarah Portrait, 2010 Erwin Olaf

Palm Springs, American Dream Portrait of Alex, 2018 Erwin Olaf

Shanghai, Du Mansion - The Parting, 2017 Erwin Olaf

Ladies Hats, Jeremiah II, 2020 Erwin Olaf

Hope, Portrait #7, 2005 Erwin Olaf

Porträt 07 - 10th of July, 2012 Erwin Olaf

Cap, 1985 Erwin Olaf

Jeremiah I, 2020 Erwin Olaf

Squares - Male Nude Divino Smiles, 1994 Erwin Olaf

Ladies Hats - Moos I, 2020 Erwin Olaf

Hope, Portrait #4, 2005 Erwin Olaf

Still Lives, Still Life with Craspedia, 2018 Erwin Olaf

Still Lives, Still Life with Anthurium, 2015 Erwin Olaf

ABOUT Kevin Osepa

Born in 1994 in Willemstad, Curacao
Lives and works in Utrecht, The Netherlands

Kevin Osepa (1994) was born and raised in Curaçao. In 2017, he graduated from the Utrecht School of the Arts with a degree in photography. With the project Mester Blousé, in which he explores how much his identity has been shaped by the spirituality and rituals of his native country, he became the youngest nominee ever for the Volkskrant Visual Arts Prize. Numerous nominations, awards, and exhibitions soon followed, including at the Stedelijk Museum Schiedam, the Nederlands Fotomuseum, the Amsterdam Museum, and TENT. Within a short time, Osepa became an important young voice in the art world.

He shifted his focus from photography to film, and with his debut Watamula (2020), he received three nominations for a Golden Calf award. A key theme in Osepa’s work is his exploration of Afro-Caribbean identity within a postcolonial reality. The stories he tells often stem from a strongly personal perspective.

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ABOUT Erwin Olaf

Erwin Olaf (1959-2023) was known for his diverse practice that centered around society’s marginalized individuals, including people of color, and the LGBTQ+ community. In 2019, Olaf became a Knight of the Order of the Lion of the Netherlands after 500 works from his oeuvre were added to the collection of the Rijksmuseum. Taco Dibbits, Rijksmuseum director, called Olaf “one of the most important photographers of the final quarter of the 20th century”.

In 2018, Olaf completed a triptych of monumental photographic and filmic tableaux portraying periods of seismic change in major world cities, and the citizens embraced and othered by their urban progress. Like much of his work, it is contextualized by complex race relations, the devastation of economic divisions, and the complications of sexuality. Olaf maintained an activistic approach to equality throughout his 40-year career after starting out documenting pre-AIDS gay liberation in Amsterdam’s nightlife in the 1980s.

A bold and sometimes controversial approach earned the artist a number of prestigious collaborations, from Vogue and Louis Vuitton, to the Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam. He served as the official portrait artist for the Dutch royal family in 2017, and designed the national side of the euro coins for King Willem-Alexander in 2013. He was awarded the Netherlands’ prestigious Johannes Vermeer Award, as well as Photographer of the Year at the International Color Awards, and Kunstbeeld magazine’s Dutch Artist of the Year. In 2023, His Majesty the King Willem-Alexander awarded him the Medal of Honor for Art and Science of the Order of the House of Orange.

Erwin Olaf exhibited worldwide, including Centro de Arte Contemporáneo de Málaga, Málaga, Spain; Museu da Imagem e do Som, São Paulo, Brazil; Martin-Gropius-Bau, Berlin, Germany; Southeastern Center for Contemporary Art, Winston-Salem, North Carolina, USA; and Museo de Arte Contemporáneo, Santiago, Chile. In the spring of 2019, Olaf’s work was the subject of a double exhibition at Kunstmuseum The Hague and The Hague Museum of Photography, as well as a solo exhibition at the Shanghai Center of Photography. In 2021, Erwin Olaf had his first solo exhibition Im Wald at Galerie Ron Mandos and mounted a large survey exhibition at Kunsthalle München, Germany.

Olaf’s work is included in numerous private and public collections, such as the Rijksmuseum and Stedelijk Museum, both in Amsterdam, The Netherlands; Fonds National d’Art Contemporain, Paris, France; Museum Ludwig, Cologne, Germany; Museum Voorlinden, Wassenaar, The Netherlands; North Carolina Museum of Art, Raleigh, United States; Art Progressive Collection, United States; and the Pushkin Museum, Moscow, Russia.

Visit the artist’s website here.

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ABOUT Gilleam Trapenberg

Born in 1991 in Willemstad, Curaçao
Lives and works in Amsterdam, The Netherlands

Born and raised in Curaçao, visual artist Gilleam Trapenberg (b. 1991) now lives and works in Amsterdam, the Netherlands. Orbiting his homeland, his creative projects look closely at the fabric of Curaçao’s social landscape, probing at the island’s many paradoxes. He searches beneath the portrayals and tropes of Caribbean life that dominate (Western) media cycles, using the camera to create necessary counter-images.

Occasionally, though, Trapenberg is himself seduced by the allure of the exported picture- postcard; on European shores, nostalgia and longing take hold, perspectives drift, and memories of home are easily romanticised. For the artist, this experience of a perpetual limbo between two distinct places – connected by the fraught legacies of colonialism, enduring flows of goods and people, or even the mass tourism industry – is a growing focal point of his work.

A graduate of The Hague’s Royal Academy of Art, Trapenberg first moved to the Netherlands at 19 years old. In the years since, his works have been exhibited at institutions such as Foam Photography Museum and Stedelik Museum Amsterdam, whilst his first photobook – Big Papi – was published in 2017. He was the 2020 recipient of Foam’s Florentine Riem Vis grant and is one of five shortlisted artists for the Taylor Wessing Photo Portrait Prize 2023. The shortlisted works will soon be exhibited at London’s National Portrait Gallery.

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ABOUT Isaac Julien

Sir Isaac Julien KBE RA (GB, 1960), a London-born filmmaker and installation artist, is celebrated for his groundbreaking approach to art, seamlessly merging film, dance, photography, music, theater, painting, and sculpture to craft compelling visual narratives through multi-screen film installations. Notably, his 1989 documentary-drama “Looking for Langston” and the Cannes Film Festival Semaine de la Critique prize-winning debut feature, “Young Soul Rebels” (1991), garnered critical acclaim on a global scale.

Julien’s international acclaim extends to prestigious solo exhibitions at prominent venues, including the Barnes Foundation, Smith College Museum of Art, and Bechtler Museum of Modern Art. His works have graced the walls of renowned institutions such as the Museum of Modern Art and the Art Institute of Chicago.

In addition to his artistic pursuits, Julien has made significant contributions to academia, holding key positions at institutions like the University of Arts London and Staatliche Hoscschule fur Gestaltung, Karlsruhe. His educational efforts were further recognized when he was awarded the James Robert Brudner ’83 Memorial Prize and delivered lectures at Yale University in 2016.

Isaac Julien’s dedication to the arts has earned him distinguished accolades, including The Royal Academy of Arts Charles Wollaston Award in 2017 and a knighthood as part of Queen Elizabeth II’s Honours List in 2022. Furthermore, he was honored with the esteemed Kaiserring Goslar Award in 2022.

In April 2023, Tate Britain hosted a comprehensive survey show, presenting Isaac Julien’s illustrious career. This exhibition featured works spanning four decades, encompassing early films and expansive multi-screen installations that delve into the themes of global movement and history. It marked the first-ever presentation of Isaac Julien’s extensive body of work in the United Kingdom. Following its showcase at Tate Britain, the exhibition traveled to K21 in Düsseldorf, and later to Bonnefanten in Maastricht in 2024.

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