Anna Munk's Ombres at Galleri Nicolai Wallner: Where Cosmetics Meet Classical Still Life

Anna Munk's exhibition Ombres at Galleri Nicolai Wallner in Copenhagen, on view from 21 August to 26 September, featured seven still lifes whose color palettes are taken directly from Chanel's Ombres eyeshadows. The artist, who graduated from Copenhagen's Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts in 2022 and is in her early thirties, incorporates tinted lip gloss, expired lipsticks, foundation, rabbit-skin glue, wax, and traditional pigments into her oil paintings. Her motifs derive from photographs of historical still life paintings found in museum digital archives; images of ornate dishes, glassware, food, and deceased fowl are enlarged and isolated within painted voids. Dappled spots of wax evoke cosmetic setting spray, while the subdued shades—pale grey, green, nude, mahogany, and midnight blue—create a melancholic atmosphere. The works include Gris Paris, Clair-Obscur, Bois Noir, and Pilo Palet, with Bois Noir drifting closest to abstraction and Pilo Palet referencing Munk's recent interest in rendering smoke from historic and modern fires. The exhibition examines the commodification of art and the body as parallel luxury forms, drawing connections between the preservation of youth through cosmetics and the preservation of objects in still life. The artist's technique, which mingles cosmetics with paint, risks transformation over time, adding a layer of instability to the works. The show was reviewed in the October 2026 issue of ArtReview.