Jordan Hemingway brings the sacred and the profane to Paris Angels With Dirty Faces is the exhibition powered by Acne Paper

Angels With Dirty Faces is the exhibition dedicated to artist Jordan Hemingway, commissioned by Acne Paper, taking place at the Palais Royal on January 22 during Paris Fashion Week. A showcase of new works by the young creative, characterized by a multidisciplinary nature, whose distinctive photographic style emerges as a reaction to the tumultuous world beyond the gallery walls.

Jordan Hemingway’s earthly angels, creatures of culture, are the protagonists of a narrative that investigates beauty and the macabre, unfolding along an intricate plot scattered with icons and historical rituals, contemplating life through movement and the body. The works, both collectively and individually, reveal the many contrasts that coexist and stratify within our humanity and spirituality.

American-born artist, photographer, and filmmaker Jordan Hemingway is based in London, and his work is rooted in traditional, material-driven practices. His modus operandi centers on contemplation and the reinterpretation of the surrounding reality as the core of his creative production. Angels With Dirty Faces marks the artist’s first public exhibition in Paris in five years, as well as his first-ever solo show in the city.

Hemingway offers a portrait of the protagonists of his poetic universe: «These are creatures of culture, drunk on lust and freedom. With clenched fists and sleepless eyes, they are utterly full of life. Born from darkness, they collectively reveal the dichotomies within us all: strength and resilience, vulnerability and beauty. I think of them as angels, each carrying a secret of their own». A cast of icons including Marina Abramović, Yves Tumor, Mariacarla Boscono, and Lewis G. Burton for Matières Fécales.

Angels With Dirty Faces is a theatrical journey through the sacred and the profane: a perpetual inquiry, an exploration and confrontation with iconography inherited from artists such as Andy Warhol and Joel-Peter Witkin. The exhibition becomes an opportunity to access Jordan Hemingway’s creative universe and be guided by his angels, suspended between beauty and the macabre, engaging not only with a portrait of the surrounding reality, but with that of humanity itself.