Anna Halldin Maule

Working with her husband, the photographer Tom Maule, Anna Halldin-Maule produces meticulously detailed, photorealistic paintings of nude—or nearly nude—women, accessorized with the trappings of fashion and luxury consumerism. Each of her large-scale, oil on canvas paintings begins with a photo shoot. Halldin-Maule carefully prepares waif-thin models—in the past, she has adorned them in jewelry from brands like Louis Vuitton and posed them fighting over a crimson Hermés Birkin bag—and her husband photographs the women in various poses. She then selects the strongest image and transforms it into a painting that appears to glow from within. Some of Halldin-Maule’s compositions feature the models’ bodies fragmented by scarves and birdcages, recalling the surrealist works of René Magritte. Halldin-Maule’s works question whether we are in control of our desire for luxury and consumption, or whether these impulses control us.