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Lend me your slow hands

Presented at China Heights Gallery, 2026

"This series of new paintings expands on Van Schaick’s continued interest in vulnerability and connection, and the discomfort surrounding these ideas. Closely cropped figurative forms, in varying degrees of ambiguity, invite active observing, forcing the viewer to question what they are witnessing. The perspective of the compositions is manipulated, turned sideways or upside down, to disrupt the viewing experience and further abstract the forms.

The bodies are presented in states of bareness, up close to the frame, asking for care. Areas of vulnerability, such as the ribs, back or collarbone, are left exposed in a display of trust and intimacy. But there is a tension here too, at once tender and tight, wary of the inherent violence and risk of sharing one’s fragility and flaws, whether to a loved one, friends or wider society. Van Schaick’s colour choices further encapsulate this friction – especially with the prevalence of yellow, which has a history of carrying both life and anxiety.

A range of oils and mediums were used to create a varied surface, with areas of gloss and matte, that shift and change as the viewer moves around the works. This creates an object that is active, not static. In this way, referencing the technique of Figure-Ground Reversal, backgrounds and shadows are often pulled forward, shifting the focus from the body to the negative space. What is behind comes forward: what is unseen becomes seen. 

Pentimenti - the traces of previous sketches, markings and compositions - are embraced, and the sides of the canvases purposefully display their history. Built up in thin layers over months, these are slow works inhabiting life in the studio, inhabiting process; which reject the modern speed of image creation and intake, instead asking you to settle in and take your time with them."

Read accompanying poem by Sadaf Chezari