b. 1965, Germany
Mafalda von Hessen was born in Kiel, Germany, in 1965, to Moritz, Landgrave of Hesse, and Princess Tatiana of Sayn-Wittgenstein-Berleburg. After studying a Masters in costume and set design at NYU Tisch School of Design she moved to Italy. In 1990 she began working for the costume house Sartoria Tirelli, in Rome, and has since collaborated on the costume design for opera productions (in London, Paris, Berlin, Madrid, Barcelona and Rome) with the Irish born designer Patrick Kinmonth. In 2015, she founded her own fashion label. It is perhaps unsurprising, therefore, that von Hessen’s works display her avid fascination with the materiality of objects.
Often depicting snapshots of interior spaces, von Hessen’s objects are intricately decorated, surfaces adorned, and warm, vibrant hues suggest a convivial atmosphere. Her style is figurative, permitting an element of compositional freedom; furnishings are depicted as larger-than-life and objects of intrigue are transposed into unfamiliar environments. As such, she creates a sense of the expanse of the indoors, which is juxtaposed with the intimacy of her chosen subject matter.