INTRO
Her process begins with a carefully rendered photorealistic underpainting. She then applies successive horizontal layers of oil paint across the surface. This deliberate blurring softens contours and disrupts clarity. The effect is both subtle and radical. Faces that feel instantly recognizable become unstable, shifting between presence and disappearance.
By working with iconic figures such as Marilyn Monroe or John F Kennedy, Van Pelt engages the collective memory embedded in mass media. The blurred surface challenges the authority of the photograph and questions the permanence of identity. What does it mean to know a face that has been endlessly reproduced. How does repetition alter memory over time.
This exhibition traces forty years of commitment to this singular inquiry. Early works reveal her foundational engagement with photographic realism and painterly interference. Later paintings introduce greater luminosity and spatial openness while maintaining the rigor of her method. Across decades, the horizontal veils function as both formal structure and conceptual device, evoking time, distance, and the fragility of remembrance.
In an era defined by the speed and saturation of images, Van Pelt’s paintings insist on duration and reflection. They invite viewers to slow down and look carefully. Portraiture here is not a fixed likeness. It is a living encounter shaped by perception, history, and the inevitable erosion of certainty.