ARTIST: Joanna van Son

ABOUT ME

4me4you recently visited Saatchi Yates, where the gallery showcased works by artist Joanna van Son.

MY PROCESS

This latest body of work marks van Son’s first solo show with the gallery, and it’s deeply rooted in her relationship with her partner, Lilah. There’s something quietly powerful about the timing too: the paintings come on the heels of her residency at the Rubell Museum and just before her upcoming wedding. You can feel that sense of transition and emotional openness in every piece.

“Sometimes paintings feel like pages from a sketchbook“

What makes these works so engaging is how raw and honest they feel. Van Son doesn’t hide the process, she embraces it.

Her background in architecture at The Bartlett comes through in her strong use of drawing, but here, those initial sketches don’t disappear beneath layers of paint.

Instead, they remain visible, adding a sense of vulnerability and immediacy, like catching a thought before it’s fully formed.

The paintings themselves are rich, textured, and alive with movement. Built up with thick layers of paint, they blur the boundaries between artist, subject, and muse.

In For Intérieur, Lanoy transforms her subjects into a shared emotional landscape, where each figure converses with the other through the silent language of paint. The interaction between the portraits creates a quiet dialogue, as if each figure’s internal world reaches out to connect with the others.

You’re not just looking at Lilah, you’re seeing her through van Son’s eyes, emotions, and gestures. It’s deeply personal, yet still open enough for viewers to find their own connection.

Colour plays a huge role in pulling you in. Soft creams, flushed pinks, deep purples, and earthy greens and reds create a palette that feels both comforting and intense.

There’s a nod to the past too, echoes of painters like Caravaggio and Joaquín Sorolla, but van Son makes it entirely her own, bringing a contemporary emotional depth to classical influences.

One standout piece, Señora de Sorolla (2025), gently references Sorolla’s portrait of his wife, but here the gaze is turned toward Lilah. It’s not just homage, it’s a continuation of a timeless theme: love, intimacy, and the act of seeing someone fully.

What lingers after leaving the exhibition is the feeling that these works are still in motion, still becoming. As van Son herself puts it, some paintings feel like sketchbook pages, others like imagined stories from a kind of personal mythology.

And that’s exactly how it feels to experience them, like stepping into a moment mid-creation, where instinct and intention meet.

ARTIST: Joanna van Son

ABOUT ME

4me4you recently visited Saatchi Yates, where the gallery showcased works by artist Joanna van Son.

MY PROCESS

“Sometimes paintings feel like pages from a sketchbook“

SEE MORE

Saatchi Yates