# Hannah Van Bart: New Paintings

URL: https://vielmetter.com/exhibitions/hannah-van-bart/
May 21 — July 2, 2022 · Gallery II · Artists: Hannah van Bart

Vielmetter Los Angeles is pleased to present *Hannah Van Bart: New Paintings,*a group of new works by the Amsterdam-based artist and her first solo exhibition in Los Angeles. Comprising of portraits and landscapes, Van Bart’s paintings are focused on emulating a particular mood or emotional landscape in lieu of representing real people or places. When painting, Van Bart relies on mark-making and her painterly dexterity to create compositions with an aim to portray a particular light and psychological space.

Throughout Van Bart’s works, there is an element of familiarity, the portraits and landscape are classically informed yet steer from the stereotypical context of such painting traditions. Van Bart paints her subjects without a preconceived notion of what they will reveal, instead, she is more interested in exploring paint and mark making as a process to explore expressions of longing and loss. Self-described as “imaginary portraits,” her paintings hinge on the landscape of imagination to conjure a sense of discovery and exploration. For Van Bart, the process of painting is about experimenting with subtle shifts in light, tone, and color to exude a felt experience. She says, “In a landscape, the collars and buttons would be pools of water or edges of a house or tree. It is a way of looking for space and light. I see the faces, figures, and landscapes all as places where I want to be. Painting as to answer the question: “how to get there?”’.