Perennial

Opening: Saturday, 1 March 16:00 – 19:00

The exhibition will be opened by artist Julius Thissen

In the exhibition Perennial, Anya Janssen searches for both the connection and the confrontation between loss, grief and beauty. She created this series of intimate paintings in response to her grieving process: not a linear, but a cyclical experience that interweaves memory, perception and time. It is her attempt to express something that happens to all of us sooner or later. The artist invites us to reflect on loss, to embrace the unresolved and to find beauty in the spaces that arise.

"At the same time, my life went on, and that was beautiful, but also difficult. It felt like I was holding on to two worlds that did not want to come together. I wanted to paint other things, but I knew it had to wait. This had to happen first. This had to be finished first, in paint and feeling." – Anya Janssen

The loss of a loved one changes all emotions and senses. Details come in unfiltered. In the space in between, you look for your loved one, because you have lost the overview. Time also passes differently, both faster and slower. Different worlds and time spans slide over each other; weaving errors or glitches appear. Janssen found solace in giving meaning to moments and places in this distorted world in her paintings.

Janssen bases her work on the Japanese philosophies of Yūgen (deep, indescribable beauty), Wabi-sabi (imperfection and temporality) and Ma (the space between things). There is both presence and absence. The lost loved one is still palpable in an empty bedroom: different times, memories, seem to be captured in the image. Traces of the deceased literally shine through the curtain, because she has painted it over a work of art that he made. A field of flowers evokes nostalgic feelings because it seems to have been recorded on an analogue film reel.

About the artist

Anya Janssen (1962) lives and works in Arnhem. She is fascinated by the processes that shape our identity. She calls herself a 'collector of souls'. Anya Janssen is represented by TORCH Gallery in Amsterdam, Galerie Thomas Rehbein in Cologne, Germany and Gallery de Wael 15 in Antwerp. Belgium.