Julie Verhoeven, Institute of Contemporary Arts

Considering that Julie Verhoeven is a fashion designer who only started creating exhibitions in the mid-noughties, it is no surprise that her work tackles the prescient issue of the presentation of women. As we count amongst the past employers of Julie Verhoeven, Mulberry, Louis Vuitton, Versace, and John Galliano, her drawings naturally provide the bridge between the worlds of art and fashion.
Julie Verhoeven illustration, installation and film at ICA London
But Verhoeven, as Whiskers Between My Legs, amply demonstrates, is much more than a purveyor of pretty pictures. Drawing on her experience in an industry that can be problematic on gender grounds, Verhoeven is well placed to address the contradictions surrounding women, beauty and the performance of desire.
Her brash and bold interdisciplinary practice finds a natural home at the Institute of Contemporary Arts London, where her film is screened on a series of monitors inlaid in quilted toilet seats. Whiskers Between My Legs is seductive and playful, even uproarious at times, but it also, like her first fashion boss Galliano, has a very dark side indeed.