Elizabeth Kleinveld, Julien Epaul e2: Kleinveld and Julien

New Orleans, LA

e2: Kleinveld and Julien present viewers with re-imagined iconic images from art history. With subjects enacting roles with varied representations of race, age, and sexual orientation, their current series, In Empathy We Trust, “remakes with a twist” works by artists such as van Eyck, Rafael, Velázquez, Rembrandt, Vermeer, Fragonard, and Manet. Inspired by the original work, e2 hopes to jar viewers into questioning their own perceptions and seeing how stereotypes can lead to prejudice and discrimination. The artists believe in the power of empathy and images to change perceptions, minds and hearts.



Elizabeth Kleinveld is an artist and photographer from New Orleans. For her, art is about creative self-expression and storytelling, allowing her to respond to what she observes in the world. While some of her work is about striving to express the beauty she sees, other work focuses on themes she finds politically important. Kleinveld’s current work with e2 arose five years after Katrina, a natural and man-made disaster that brought social inequities in Louisiana into vivid focus.



Epaul Julien is an artist from New Orleans who began his career as a fine art photographer in 1995 when a near death experience changed his life. For Epaul, creating art is a necessity vitally linked to his existence. Raised outside New Orleans on a family plantation named Africa, Julien was always keenly aware of racial divides and stereotypes, which his work with e2 seeks to challenge and rebuke.