DETAILS

• Title: 'X'
• Year: 2018
• Dimensions: 41 x 61 inch / 105 x 155 cm
• Medium: oil on canvas

ABOUT

In Dress Code, a young girl stands outfitted in protective attire — garments that function less as costume than as precaution. The image stages childhood within a landscape shaped by environmental precarity, where adaptation replaces innocence.

Her clothing evokes contemporary forms of defense: protection from rising waters, unstable climates, and compromised air. Yet the protective gear also signals inheritance. The child does not choose the conditions she prepares for; she responds to a world structured by decisions made before her arrival.

As in much of de Meijer’s practice, the figure operates as an archetype rather than an individual portrait. Dress Code reflects on generational continuity under ecological strain, examining how resilience, vigilance, and resistance become embedded within youth identity. The painting does not dramatize catastrophe; instead, it captures a poised confrontation — a young presence shaped by urgency yet standing with composure.

THEMES 

Climate Change · Generational Inheritance · Adaptation · Resistance · Environmental Precarity

AVAILABILITY

Available for institutional exhibition and private acquisition. Currently located in New York City.