Artist Statement

Jacqueline Delaye is a French / Mexican-born visual artist and photographer living in Germany. Working at the intersection of self-portraiture and feminist visual critique, she stages images that transform the familiar—dolls, cleaning tools, food, costumes—into sites of irony, absurdity, and subversion. Her practice draws from fifteen years immersed in motherhood and domestic life, reclaiming overlooked spaces as arenas of creativity and resistance. Through performative photography and video, Delaye reimagines the domestic sphere, questioning the cultural myths that shape women’s identities.

She began creating late at night, using her kitchen or laundry room as makeshift stages, and turning the fragments of daily life into materials for creation.

Her work has since evolved into a personal and political form of resistance, exploring the tensions between motherhood, desire, identity, gender roles, and symbolic violence. With a bold and kitsch visual language, her images confront viewers with uncomfortable beauty and poetic critique.

The artist uses her body and image to challenge traditional narratives of femininity, breaking with the notion of women as mere objects of desire or passive consumers.

Biography

Jacqueline Delaye is a conceptual photographer based in Berlin, with a background in Photography Video and Cinema. Her work has been exhibited in places like the House of Cultures of Mexico in Paris, and has been recognized for her exploration of emotional and human themes through a powerful and evocative visual language. Inspired by references from film and painting, Jacqueline combines contemporary techniques with a unique sensibility.

Featured Series

Series: Fragile Horizons

This compelling series, “Fragile Horizons,” delves into the nuanced vulnerability of women’s expression, masterfully employing the interplay of light and shadow. Each piece accentuates the profound, often conflicting, feelings of isolation and hope that shape the human experience. Through evocative compositions, the artist invites viewers to contemplate the delicate balance between inner turmoil and the persistent glimmer of resilience.

Featured works include:

Series: Inner States

A visual investigation into mental health, identity, trauma and the inner landscapes that define identity. Intense compositions with dramatic use of color and figure. Inner States is a deeply intimate and fiercely political visual exploration. Through theatrical and chromatically intense compositions, Jacqueline Delaye invites us to descend into the invisible territories of the mind: those internal landscapes where trauma, the multiplicity of the self, and the struggle to maintain sanity reside.

The scene depicts a fragmented world: disguised bodies, dissonant actions, animal presences, childlike objects, and performative gestures intertwine to construct a kind of symbolic psychoscene. Here, the mind is not represented as an abstraction, but as a habitable space, a dense forest of memories and roles vying for control of identity.

Each figure embodies an archetype or a split part of the self: the woman looking in the mirror, the one sleeping hugging a bear, the farm worker, the one watching from afar. They are all the same, and at the same time, none of them are. The intense color, the dramatic use of the body, and the symbolic relationship with animals and objects speak of a mind that cannot find unity, but does find narrative.

Inner States is not only about mental health; the work questions how society defines what it means to “be well” and which bodies have the right to be heard. There is criticism, irony, and also tenderness. The natural space that surrounds the scene offers neither refuge nor threat: it is a distorted mirror of inner chaos.

This work is a powerful statement about what it means to inhabit a contested identity. It speaks of surviving, of telling oneself over and over again so as not to disappear. Delaye transforms psychological pain into visual language, making the invisible absolutely unforgettable.

Series: Mothers in the Age of Capitalism

In a system that measures value by productivity, capital, and efficiency, motherhood—with its expanded time, its unquantifiable affection, and its invisible labor—becomes a form of dissent. This work explores the tensions between the body that gestates, cares for, and raises children, and the machinery of a world that pushes it to the margins of the market.

Mothers in the Age of Capitalism is a silent cry and at the same time an archive of gestures: exhaustion, splitting, the partial disappearance of an identity that becomes multiple. The artist fragments, multiplies, sits on the fertile ground as a symbol of origin, but also as a body worn down by the demands of a system that romanticizes motherhood while exploiting it.

Here there is an echo of all those who raise children without a safety net, without pay, without rest. The altered face, almost a mask, speaks of imposed roles, of the artifice of the “good mother” in contrast to the real, complex, contradictory experience.

In times when even love can be capitalized on, this work confronts us with an urgent question: What does it mean to mother when everything—even the body—has been transformed into merchandise?

Series: Daily Transgression

The photographic series “Daily Transgression” by Delaye is a bold exploration of gender roles, social expectations, and the redefinition of female space in the contemporary era. Through a lens that blends drama, humor, and social criticism, the artist invites us to a visual feast where the familiar becomes subversive and the conventional is dismantled.

In this collection, the artist appropriates archetypes and scenarios that have traditionally defined (and limited) women—from the home and domesticity to icons of history and popular culture—to infuse them with a new narrative of agency and empowerment. Each image becomes a micro-story of resistance:

“Daily Transgression” is a mirror that reflects the complexities of modern femininity, celebrating women’s ability to navigate and subvert imposed norms. The artist uses her own image as a vehicle to explore these narratives, inviting us to question what it means to be a woman today and to recognize the infinite ways in which transgression can flourish in the most everyday aspects of our lives. It is a series that not only observes, but provokes, challenges, and ultimately empowers.

Serie: Synthetic Eden: Between the Artificial and the Human

“Synthetic Eden” is a series that exposes the friction between our longing for authenticity and our surrender to the synthetic. Drawing from the language of advertising, consumer spectacle, and fantasy, Jacqueline Delaye constructs scenes where the familiar becomes uncanny and desire turns ambivalent.

Serie: Inner Bestiary

Title: Inner Bestiary: Echoes of Innocence and the Farce of Being

In “Inner Bestiary,” Jacqueline Delaye invites us on an enigmatic journey through the most playful and, at the same time, disturbing layers of identity. The series unfolds like a game of mirrors where the childlike, the mysterious, and the burlesque intertwine in portraits that challenge perception. Through the masks of a teddy bear, a monkey, and a unicorn, Delaye constructs a universe where apparent innocence hides complex truths and farce becomes a path to introspection.

The teddy bear mask, with its inherent tenderness, introduces an element of vulnerability and nostalgia for childhood, but its immobility and the absent gaze it projects suggest an underlying mystery, perhaps the shadow of lost innocence or the mockery of forced sweetness. The monkey, with its connotations of mischief and imitation, evokes a subtle mockery of social conventions or human nature itself, while its gaze may contain an ancestral wisdom or a hidden mischief that challenges the viewer. Finally, the unicorn, symbol of purity and fantasy, is presented with an ambiguity that oscillates between the ethereal and the ironic; is it a celebration of boundless imagination or a critique of illusions and unattainable ideals?

Delaye uses these archetypal figures from the child’s imagination to explore the complexity of the adult psyche. The images, bathed in an atmosphere of gloom and selective light, accentuate the mystery, inviting the viewer to decipher the hidden narratives behind each masked face. “Inner Bestiary” is a visual provocation that confronts us with our own masks, those we use to protect ourselves, to play, or to hide, revealing that, often, in the most childlike and mysterious, lies the deepest truth of our being.

“Killing Teddy Bears” (60cm x 40 cm, limited edition of 3, 2022)In “Killing Teddy Bears,” Lady Kunst dismantles the prefabricated innocence of childhood. Through playful confrontation with the teddy bear, the artist explores the liberation of expectations, the symbolic violence against imposed sweetness, and the cathartic act of disarming what was once untouchable. Each piece is a bold commentary on coming of age, rebellion, and the redefinition of nostalgia.

“The Primal Gaze: An Echo on the Horizon” (60cm x 40 cm, limited edition of 3, 2022)“The Primal Gaze: An Echo on the Horizon” immerses us in the vast solitude of the landscape, where the masked figure of the monkey becomes an enigmatic sentinel. Lady Kunst explores the ancestral connection to nature, contemplative stillness and the sense of being a small entity in the face of immensity, inviting deep introspection about our place in the vast tapestry of the world.

“The Melancholy of the Unicorn: A Domestic Western” (60cm x 40 cm, limited edition of 3, 2022) In “The Melancholy of the Unicorn: A Domestic Western,” Lady Kunst juxtaposes the mythical fantasy of the unicorn with a stark indoor reality. The image, charged with a strange stillness and a gun, dismantles innocence to reveal the hidden tensions and silent battles that rage in the most intimate corners of existence. It is an exploration of the vulnerability, power and complexity of the human psyche.

“Mono” (120cm x 80 cm, limited edition of 3, 2022) “Monkey” by Lady Kunst places us in an open landscape where the masked figure becomes a point of visual interrogation. The artist explores alienation, anonymity and the ambiguous relationship of human beings with their environment, both natural and natural.

“Unicorn” (75cm x 50 cm, limited edition of 3, 2023) In “Unicorn”, Lady Kunst revisits the archetype of fantasy with a contemplative and slightly melancholic gaze. The unicorn mask, a symbol of purity and dreams, perches in an environment that suggests introspection. The series explores the persistence of imagination in adulthood, the search for the magical and the subtle tension between ideal and reality.

“Little Friend” (60cm x 40 cm, limited edition of 3, 2023) “Little Friend” by Lady Kunst presents a poignant encounter between the innocence of the teddy bear and the authenticity of the horse. The artist captures a silent dialogue between the fabricated and the natural, fantasy and reality, inviting us to reflect on the unexpected connections and beauty that arise when different worlds intersect in a landscape of mist and mystery.

“No worries” ( 60cm x 40cm, limited edition of 3, 2023) In “No worries”, Lady Kunst addresses the complex relationship between childhood and arid environments. The teddy bear figure, seemingly carefree, stands in a landscape of rocks and earth, suggesting an unexpected resilience. The series explores the ability to find solace and rootedness even in desolation, and the innocence that persists in the face of the harshness of existence.

Serie: Anatomy of Freedom / Breaking Down Walls

“Police” (60cm x 40cm, limited edition of 3, 2024) In “Police”, Lady Kunst (Jacqueline Delaye) deconstructs the symbols of authority and control with a penetrating gaze. The figure, clad in badges of power and a necklace evoking counterculture, embodies the complex tension between the established order and the quest for personal freedom. The work is a visual meditation on who exercises authority, how freedom is defined and the contradictions inherent in both concepts in our society.

“Wall” (60cm x 40cm, limited edition of 3, 2024) “Wall” by Lady Kunst (Jacqueline Delaye) is a powerful allegory of resistance and transformation. Against a backdrop of bricks painted in the vibrant colors of the rainbow, a figure wields a hammer while holding a lamb, merging the action of demolition with innocence and rebirth. The work celebrates the audacity of breaking down barriers, physical and symbolic, and the promise of a future of diversity and freedom built on the rubble of division.

“Vote” (60 cm x 40cm, limited edition of 5, 2024) A sharp reflection on political performance, public perception, and the complexity of a system that, despite its democratic vitality, can fall into self-parody.

“Against Racism” (60 cm x 40 cm, limited edition of 3, 2024) invites reflection on individual and collective responsibility in eradicating racism, using art as a vehicle for awareness and activism.

Serie: Echoes of the Subconscious: Perspectives on Transition

“La Muerte” ( 60cmx 40cm, limited edition of 3, 2024) A multifaceted exploration of transition, the psyche, and the inevitable presence of the transcendent.

“La Calaca” ( 60cm x 40cm, limited edition of 3, 2024) The work is an echo of the collective subconscious that reflects on our own transition.

“The Last Supper” ( 55.7cm x 32 cm, limited edition of 3, 2022) Opens a critical dialogue about consumption, scarcity, and the trivialization of the sacred in the modern era.

Services / Available Works

Works available in limited editions, numbered and signed.

Collaborations with galleries, museums and cultural institutions

Licenses for editorial or advertising use

Commissioned projects

Contact

Jacqueline Delaye

theladykunst@gmail.com

www.jacquelinedelaye.com

Instagram: @ladykunst