Samantha Van Heest

«Pull Shapes (Duet)» Oil on Canvas, Diptych by Samantha Van Heest

2020

Shit happens sometimes. In this piece, the artist wanted to create an unsettling and claustrophobic space where people feel most private and vulnerable. Inspired by artist Tala Madani, she created a cartoon figure to act as the voyeur, a bright and unwelcome disturbance that cannot be ignored. Samantha Van Heest...

Ellipses plays with the nature of awkward interaction and subtle facial expressions. Is it all internal, or can awkwardness feel like a palpable and personified presence? Samantha Van Heest...

This study takes inspiration from historical “reclining nude” paintings, most of which were painted through the perspective of the male gaze. The artist wanted to change the narrative and make the woman feel more empowered and dominant in her situation, aware of the power she holds. Samantha Van Heest...

It’s Okay, Little Crab (Sensory Overload) in a way feels like a self portrait, with the vacuum acting as a personified vision of time and societal expectation. The vacuum may never reach the crab, but its loud and disturbing presence will. Samantha Van Heest...

My work with Fractals takes the literal definition - ‘the self-repeating properties found within a single object of nature’ – and broadens the principles to how nature repeats itself...

"From time to time (diptych)" is an abstract diptych on canvas. It is painted with thick brushstrokes, very dynamic and expressive. The main colors are green, blue and red. The sides...

"I make quiet paintings in a noisy world. My work is an intimate meditation on humble objects and the detritus of studio life. I aim to promote a reengagement with the mundane while ...

David Mellen's work is not easily defined, vacillating between human flesh and metaphoric representation, the paintings beg you to look deeper and to consider their physical properties. Duchamp, de Kooning, Bacon, Giacometti, Rothko are all direct influences for Mellen, yet he can not be strictly categorized as a representational or an abstract artist. Mellen paints forms reminiscent of human bodies, building them one day at a time for the duration of several months. An endless process of addition and subtraction is at work as the loosely defined figures emerge in sharp contrast with precisely executed geometric backgrounds of neutral colors. The juxtaposition between exposed canvas, well-defined geometric background and a form as the subject of the painting is a motif that has followed Mellen’s work through the years. The entities in Mellen’s work reference actions rather than concrete characters. For example, in Descent (2020) a fall from grace...