Vanitas — Contemporary Still Life Art by John Engen

  • virtual gallery

    Enter a virtual 3D gallery

    Welcome to the virtual 3D gallery of Vanitas, where 17th-century Dutch still-life symbolism is reimagined through contemporary digital art and modern visual language. This immersive exhibition bridges historical tradition and present-day meaning, inviting viewers to explore themes of time, impermanence, and illusion within a spatial, reflective environment.

  • A stilllife with a basketball incased within a block of ice

    17th-century Dutch still-life reimagined

    Vanitas is an ongoing series that reinterprets the symbolism of 17th-century Dutch still-life painting through a contemporary lens. Drawing from the visual language of classical Vanitas—objects that speak to time, wealth, knowledge, and mortality—these works place familiar modern icons into moments of suspension, transformation, or quiet tension.

  • Reflections at Three in the Morning reinterprets the vanitas tradition through glass and reflection, symbols of fragile perception.

    Vanitas: Reflection Series

    The Vanitas: Reflection Series explores impermanence through mirrors, glass, and framed surfaces that distort and duplicate familiar objects. Drawing from 17th-century Dutch still-life traditions and contemporary symbols, each work examines how time, identity, and value shift through reflection, illusion, and observation.