In Nymphs 2.0, I revisit the classical tradition of depicting bathing women—from ancient nymphs to 19th-century odalisques—but through my own lens as a contemporary female artist. I wanted to question the long-standing art historical gaze that has rendered women as passive, idealized subjects of desire. By softening focus, abstracting form, and removing identifying features, I’m intentionally dissolving the body—not to erase it, but to reclaim it.
These figures are no longer bound to nature or myth. Instead, they inhabit dreamlike spaces where water becomes a symbol rather than a setting—something closer to code than to landscape. For me, these spaces reflect a contemporary condition: disembodiment, anonymity, and the blurred boundary between real and virtual. This is where I place my modern nymphs—not as muses, but as authors of their own presence.
My visual language is shaped by modernist influences like Matisse, Modigliani, Magritte and Malevich. Their bold color and symbolic abstraction offered me a way to move beyond realism and engage with the body as a conceptual and emotional form. Through this series, I’m not just revisiting history—I’m trying to reimagine it on my own terms.
Artist Statement:
Over her fifteen-year photographic career, Julia has navigated seismic shifts in her artistic trajectory, moving from travel photography toward contemporary art. The upheavals of the early 2020s profoundly altered her creative path. What began as an outward gaze turned inward, catalyzing a transformation in both process and purpose, driven by a search for meaning within uncertainty. Her work examines identity, perception, and the shifting nature of reality and memory.
This period also marked a conscious redefinition of her visual language. Aesthetically, her images evolved from vibrant, concrete scenes into symbolic compositions that hover between abstraction and figuration. Dream logic and a poetic use of color and light became tools for exploring consciousness and perception. Her work dissolves traditional boundaries, forming a personal universe that invites viewers into liminal spaces where memory, emotion, and intuition converge.
Julia Wimmerlin:
Julia Wimmerlin is a Ukrainian-born, Swiss-based visual artist working with photography and mixed media. She holds an MA in Economics, a postgraduate diploma in International Marketing, and a degree in Art History. After a career in international marketing, she committed fully to photography in 2014, starting as a travel and commercial photographer before moving into art photography. After leaving her native Kyiv, she lived and worked across Europe and Asia, an experience that shaped her layered visual perspective.
Her work has been exhibited across Europe, Asia, and North America, and is held in private collections across Europe. She has presented her work at art fairs including ArtKyiv, Haute Photographie and ST-Strasbourg. Her photographs have been published in The New York Times, National Geographic, GEO, The Guardian, Forbes, Le Figaro, and Vogue Ukraine amongst others.
Julia has received numerous international awards. Since 2018, she has been teaching Vision and Style at the Swiss Photo Club Academy.
juliawimmerlin.com
@juliawimmerlinart
