Painter-to-watch Joanna van Son puts a modern spin on the old masters at Saatchi Yates
In London, the artist’s rich oil paintings pay tribute to her partner
Joanna van Son’s gloriously rich, textural paintings could date from another era; they would be perfectly at home alongside Caravaggio’s glints of light, or Frans Hals’ sharply observed portraiture. And yet, the Oman-born, London-based artist has created a style that is entirely her own.
Joanna van Son in her west London studio
A self-taught painter, van Son studied architecture at the Bartlett, London, translating a keen sense of spatial awareness into a sensual perception of the female figure. ‘Architecture prepared me for the immersive by projecting me into it, making me acknowledge the senses and languages I needed to play with to make new realities present,’ says van Son. ‘It fuelled my indecision when I learnt an architectural drawing could show all realities at once, I never wanted to choose just one, and it enabled me to live in this ambiguity. I’m glad I started painting this way; I wasn’t made to feel bad about being lost, I was made to feel like I was on to something.’
For her first show at Saatchi Yates in London, van Son leans into this immersion with a series of works devoted to her partner, Lilah, reimagining her form in multiple dream-like iterations. In her work, thick, tangible layers of paint imbue an intimate relationship with a scrutiny rooted in art history traditions.
‘I don't need to talk through things to make sense of the world, I just have to paint them’
Joanna van Son
‘My work may just point out two all-consuming facts of my life, painting and Lilah,’ van Son says. ‘I speak to them with an attention nothing else gets. We are the only people in the room. Painting becomes my emotional thinking process, I don't need to talk through things to make sense of the world, I just have to paint them; paint how we interact with each other, capture how we feel about each other. I'm not giving people the image of the perfect relationship, I'm giving something dark and turmoiled, at the same time as passionate or peaceful. I like it being both those extremes at once, and depending who's looking at the work, they may take something else from the painting.’
The paintings are actually an amalgamation of mediums, with the marks of drawing and text often visible among the passionate swirls and coils of paint. Adds van Son: ‘I think the drawing is one of the most precious parts of the painting. I want the viewer to know it exists, I think I always have.’
For the artist, it is at one with the multi-layered meanings inherent in her works. ‘The day I started being more vulnerable with my drawing is the day I actually started to put the bodies in spaces, giving them a plane to lie on or mark where the vantage point cuts them off or moves them around. I think exposing it really shows how I am questioning myself as I paint, questioning the subject’s place on the canvas, etc, which I think is vital for how I learn from my paintings and that continues into my next work.’
Joanna van Son is at Saatchi Yates until 16 April
