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Opening the 2026 programme at Acne Paper Palais Royal, Angels With Dirty Faces presents a new body of work by Jordan Hemingway that responds directly to the turbulence of the world beyond the gallery walls. Anchored in the artist’s distinctive photographic language, the exhibition unfolds as an immersive and confrontational meditation on humanity, spirituality, and embodiment.
Predominantly rendered in monochrome, the works move between the beautiful and the macabre, examining long-standing icons, rituals, and archetypes through the lens of the body in motion. Hemingway treats the human figure as both subject and symbol, using gesture, tension, and physical presence to explore the contradictions that define contemporary existence. Across the series, themes of desire, resistance, vulnerability, and power surface repeatedly, revealing the fragile balance between darkness and transcendence.
The exhibition’s title reflects Hemingway’s conceptual framing of his subjects as modern angels — figures born from shadow rather than light. As the artist explains, they are “creatures of culture, drunk on lust and freedom,” embodying the opposing forces that coexist within us all. These images suggest spirituality not as purity, but as something messy, embodied, and deeply human.
Featuring an arresting cast that includes Marina Abramović, Yves Tumor, Mariacarla Boscono, and Lewis G. Burtonfor Matières Fécales, the exhibition operates as a theatrical passage between the sacred and the profane. Hemingway’s approach continues his long-standing engagement with inherited visual languages, drawing implicit dialogue with figures such as Andy Warhol and Joel-Peter Witkin, while asserting a voice that feels distinctly of the present.
Angels With Dirty Faces marks a significant moment in Hemingway’s career: his first solo exhibition in Paris, and his first public showing in the city in five years. Known for a practice rooted in material, traditional techniques yet charged with a contemporary intensity, Hemingway has built a reputation as one of today’s most compelling image-makers. With a body of work spanning major fashion houses and an ongoing creative relationship with FKA twigs, this exhibition consolidates his position at the intersection of art, fashion, and visual culture, offering a vision that is as unsettling as it is magnetic.
