At Acne Paper Palais Royal, Angels With Dirty Faces unveils a powerful new body of work by London-based multidisciplinary artist Jordan Hemingway, marking his first solo exhibition in Paris. On view from 22 January to 15 March 2026, the exhibition situates Hemingway’s visceral, image-driven practice within the historic surroundings of the Palais Royal, forging a dialogue between sanctity and subversion.
Hemingway’s series explores the tension between the beautiful and the macabre, examining cultural icons and ritualistic gestures through movement and the expressive capacity of the body. His lens captures moments suspended between ecstasy and stillness, strength and fragility—revealing figures that feel at once celestial and earthly, immaculate yet marked.
Central to the exhibition are collaborations with some of contemporary culture’s most compelling presences: performance art pioneer Marina Abramović, whose physical and spiritual endurance has redefined the body as medium; genre-defying musician Yves Tumor, embodying transformation and theatrical intensity; supermodel Mariacarla Boscono, whose sculptural presence channels both devotion and defiance; and Lewis G. Burton for Matières Fécales, whose radical aesthetic confronts beauty with distortion and dark romanticism.
Through these collaborations, Hemingway constructs a visual theology of contrasts. Flesh becomes architecture; gesture becomes prayer; adornment becomes armor. The works do not simply depict their subjects—they elevate them into contemporary icons, caught between sanctification and rebellion. Spiritual symbolism collides with erotic charge, while classical composure gives way to raw exposure.
The title, Angels With Dirty Faces, gestures toward this duality. It speaks to the paradox of purity marked by experience, of transcendence grounded in the physical world. In Hemingway’s universe, divinity is not untouchable—it sweats, trembles, desires. His images ask what it means to believe in beauty today, and whether the sacred can exist without shadow.
Presented in the intimate setting of Acne Paper Palais Royal, the exhibition invites viewers into a contemplative yet confrontational space—one where vulnerability is strength, and the body becomes both altar and offering.
Exhibition Dates: 22 January – 15 March 2026
Opening Hours:
Thursday – Saturday: 11am – 7pm
Sunday: 12pm – 7pm
Address:
124 Galerie de Valois
75001 Paris