Eloïse Van der Heyden Explores Metamorphosis in 'MUE(S)' at Galerie Putman

Galerie Putman presents MUE(S), the fourth solo exhibition devoted to Eloïse Van der Heyden, on view in the gallery's new space until October 24, 2026. The show organizes the artist's diverse media—prints, drawings, bronzes, and ceramics—around the single theme of mue (molting or metamorphosis), linking her various practices through the lens of transformation. Sculpture anchors the presentation, structured around three recurring figures: the tree, the woman, and the serpent. The centerpiece is a lost-wax bronze depicting Mélusine, the fairy-woman whose body extends into a serpent's tail, a figure the artist uses to explore secrecy, duality, and a body that must change to survive. Fabrication processes reinforce the theme: smoke firing, oxidation, and the application of patina alter the surface of the sculptures, while the prints involve inking objects—nylon tights, ferns, condoms—before pressing them through a lithographic press, transforming the object into an image. By gathering these bodies of work, MUE(S) offers a complementary reading of an oeuvre the gallery has already explored, arguing that Van der Heyden's metamorphosis operates through continuity rather than rupture: matter shifts, forms move, objects become imprints, and bodies transform, all pointing to the idea that creating means accepting transformation.