“With shimmering glitter and electrifying colors, Dunja’s paintings are both mesmerizing and deeply moving,” said Barbara A. Blair, president of the Garment District Alliance. “By putting viewers at the center of her creative process, Dunja enables them to see the world through her eyes.”

Through acrylics, oil, beads, and glitter, Messer-Jourdain’s abstract paintings reflect her unusual relationship to visual experience. Since childhood, Messer-Jourdain has been affected by a form of synesthesia, a condition that involves an extreme sensitivity to colors and textures and produces physical sensations. Spectacles reflects her experiences with this condition, sublimated through the prism of her playful, complex, deceptively placid, and gentle personality. As the colors swirl around a viewer’s chosen focal point, the paintings evoke a sense of calm that allows for meditative focus and transport Messer-Jourdain’s audience inward.

Born in Germany, Messer-Jourdain is a visual artist and fashion designer located in New York City. She received her early training and exposure to fashion design at her family’s traditional European master tailor atelier in Germany and attended the College for Design in Hanover and the University of Applied Sciences in Bremen, where she received a degree in international management with a focus on the textile industry in Fair Trade. Messer-Jourdain also studied design, the making of textiles and coloring at Co-Optex International Company in Chennai, India.

Location & Time

Located inside the Kaufman Arcade building on 139 W 35th Street in the Garment District, NYC, the exhibit is accessible to the public through March 3, 2023, Monday to Saturday.