Watch how Lillian van Veen reimagines clothing as unwearable art to reflect on queer identity and self-presentation.
As a co-director of The Frame Gallery during the 2024–2025 academic year, Lillian van Veen shaped the gallery’s programming while also mounting their own solo exhibition, The Clothes Make the Man, which ran March 21–23. A BHA student in Fine Art and Creative Writing through the BXA Intercollege Degree Program — with a minor in Animation and Special Effects — van Veen brought an interdisciplinary lens to the show, which examined how garments tied to past presentations of femininity carry emotional and symbolic weight. By transforming personal items into unwearable art objects, they found a way to engage with the complexities of self-presentation without re-inhabiting them. The exhibition also reflected on the masculine clothing they wear now and the adjustments required to make those garments feel authentic and livable.
In their Senior Spotlight video, van Veen discusses how their interdisciplinary practice — spanning painting, soft sculpture, and video — is shaped by queer masculinity and the evolving relationship between identity and clothing.