Anouk JONKER

March 3-29, 2026

Opening Reception:  Saturday, March 7, 1pm

My family relocated to Canada when I was seven years old. This early move instilled an attentiveness to the idea of memory and the ways it can both distort and romanticize the past. I became fascinated with family history and, by extension, history itself. These curiosities have become the foundation of my studio practice, as I navigate the space between memory and invention and explore art as a means of escapism.

My paintings evoke themes of childhood, domesticity, and leisure to create spaces that feel both familiar and fantastical. Broadly inspired by Renaissance history painting, I borrow the compositional structure of early European art and merge it with imagery drawn from rural Canadiana, domestic interiors, and figurative photography. Layering imagery allows me to reimagine formal conventions in art, rethinking composition, scale, and narrative clarity. The viewer becomes an active participant in the construction of meaning.

More broadly, my work questions the role of painting within the contemporary art landscape. In an increasingly digital age, what can painting still offer? I emphasize the tactile materiality of oil paint through bold brushwork, heavy application, and visible layers. By adding traditional decorative motifs such as floral bouquets, table runners, patterns, and frames, I also explore the role that paintings play in interior decorating, challenging a viewer’s preconceived ideas between ‘high’ and ‘low’ art.