SCHUNCK presents the first major Dutch overview of Ina van Zyl

The exhibition shows how Van Zyl has developed a distinctive visual language centred on intimacy, tension, and precision, and for the first time presents all aspects of her practice in a single overview.

Extreme close-ups and an uncanny everydayness

Van Zyl is known for her extreme close-ups of body fragments, flowers, fruit, and objects. Her precise painting technique, layered compositions, and saturated colours make her images both inviting and unsettling. Art critic Dominic van den Boogerd describes how Van Zyl “recognises, in the prosaic nature of the things around her - objects, food, bodies and landscapes - a pitiable tragedy that is at the same time absurd.” This tension between the everyday and the uncanny is a constant in her work.

On intensity and presence

Senior curator Cynthia Jordens of SCHUNCK emphasises that beauty and discomfort continually coexist in her paintings, while artistic director Fabian de Kloe points to the intensity of Van Zyl’s gaze: everything is reduced to a concentrated fragment that presents itself emphatically to the viewer, giving her relatively small paintings a striking presence.

Full scope of the practice and a new monograph

Where Are You From presents the full breadth of her practice: from early black-and-white comics and small drawings to paintings in which colour intensity, tactility, and extreme proximity take centre stage. A monograph is published alongside the exhibition by nai010 publishers, featuring essays by Dominic van den Boogerd, Diana Quinby, Fabian de Kloe, and Cynthia Jordens, an interview by Joël Riff, and design by Akiko Wakabayashi.

Ina van Zyl at SCHUNCK

SCHUNCK has followed Van Zyl’s work since 2009, when the museum acquired her paintings Long Legs (2008) and Red Apples (2009). The exhibition continues SCHUNCK’s tradition of presenting artists who engage deeply with themes of intimacy, identity, and contemporary visual culture. Where Are You From reveals how Van Zyl’s development has unfolded over several decades.

Thematic structure: still life, landscape, portrait and graphic novels

The exhibition is organised thematically around the genres in which Van Zyl works: still life, landscape, portrait, and graphic novels. This structure shows how these forms overlap in her practice and how she continuously explores ways to depict proximity, tension, and corporeality.

Also on view at SCHUNCK: new presentations of local talent

During the same period, SCHUNCK presents new work by local artists. In the display window of SCHUNCK Glaspaleis, artist Gladys Zeevaarders shows work in which nature and traces of human presence - or absence - come together, ranging from prints and drawings to natural colour experiments and woven textiles. The Atrium features a new installation by Charlotte Koenen, based on her research into nineteenth-century lavoirs, where clay impressions and light-sensitive materials reveal the relationship between matter, space, and history. In the staircase, Romy Finke realises a new commission for SCHUNCK: an artistic intervention offering a different perspective on the city, its architecture, and the role of the collection as a means of public reflection and wonder.