Fashion World Veteran Francois Ilneseher Exhibiting at Gallery Molly Krom
Photographers Leibovitz and Demarchelier have worked with him. Sophia Loren, Brooke Shields, Susan Sarandon, and Faye Dunaway have been transformed by him. His work has been featured in hundreds of U.S. and international magazines, among them Elle, Vogue, Vanity Fair, Town and Country, and the Sports Illustrated Swimsuit edition, to name a few. Most recently he has been the go-to makeup artist and hairstylist to Elle Macpherson and Helen Mirren.
Francois Ilneseher is a veteran of the fashion industry. His career began in Biel, Switzerland where Ilnseher apprenticed at his father’s hair salon. After a short stint in England, he developed a reputation as a leading hair stylist in Johannesburg, South Africa, at the prestigious Hotel Carlton Salon. In 1964, he came to New York City to the Kenneth Salon, where his clients included Ali McGraw, Candice Bergen, Carol Alt, Christie Brinkley, Cheryl Tiegs, Cybill Shepherd, Mia Farrow, Priscilla Presley, and a myriad of other A-listers. For many years he was the primary hair and makeup artist for Cover Girl, Revlon, and Maybelline television commercials.
More recently, however, Ilneseher has been building a tantamount reputation as a painter, sculptor, and mixed media artist. Ilnseher’s work is a reflection on the memory of his many years in the world of fashion. His captivating and hauntingly beautiful works offer a glimpse into the glamorous and frustrating world of fashion, a world, he says, “where the image rules and the creator of the image is frequently a figure in the shadow.”
Ilneseher writes, “I am propelled by the desire to create a face, an image, and ultimately a memory that I could fall in love with. My work combines years of creating intimate artistry on the faces of some of the most beautiful people in the world. These very personal experiences in the world of beauty and fashion play out dramatically and emotionally in my art. I search for what is not yet there through excavation of memories and images that were.”
Francois Ilnseher’s recent collages are on view at Gallery Molly Krom in New York City until February 27th.
