Based in Amsterdam, Dutch artist Maaike Schoorel is a figurative painter distinguished by her unique ability to depict bodies, subjects and scenes with exceptional control and composure. Her slow and considered approach produces artworks that demand interaction, rendering the viewer-art exchange a participatory exercise.
Read MoreBorn and bred in the small village of Santpoort, near Amsterdam, Schoorel's younger years were based around the local community, a contrast to the time she later spent in London, studying her Masters at the Royal College of Art in 2001. Prior to this she earned her Bachelors degree at the Gerrit Rietveld Academy in Amsterdam in 1998.
In an early stage of her career, Schoorel moved to East London, living in a Victorian terrace house on Columbia Road, Bethnal Green. Here, despite initial loneliness, she became party to London's many artistic communities, finding representation by esteemed gallerist Maureen Paley. By 2008, her work was in the collections of prestigious individuals, including fashion designer Raf Simons and advertising mogul Charles Saatchi.
Tapping into memories and personal experiences, Schoorel's practice often starts with photographic images, which are then scaled up for paintings on canvas. With a less-is-more layering style, she alludes to subjects, which only become clear after one has sat with and studied the works.
From the earliest days in her career, Schoorel has used her art to evoke perceptual reactions in an audience. In her second solo show at Maureen Paley gallery, entitled Nudes (2008), she used a now-signature technique that makes the artworks appear like bleached-out photographs. As such, the nude figures in the works—based on photos of friends and family—do not easily reveal themselves, rather, they must be pieced together by viewers as their eyes adjust.
Continuing her practice of exquisite subtlety, the artist often uses largely white, off-white or blacked-out backdrops, painting on top as minimally as possible. In terms of subjects, she flits between the animate and inanimate, sometimes painting mundane drinking glasses, or more recently, looking to the natural or supernatural world. All About the Animal (2021), her sophomore show in Brazil, riffed on the latter, bringing pandas, unicorns and dogs alongside whimsical interpretations of flowing water or blustering trees.
In an exciting development in her work, Schoorel turned her gaze towards Old Masters paintings, rather than her usual source of personal photography. Coming to life during a group exhibition called Abstract Conversations (2017) at Rosenfeld Porcini gallery, she reimagined Frans Hals' Banquet of the Officers of the Guard (1616) in her typically light touch. Her rendition required borrowing the original Dutch masterpiece, and commissioning children to re-enact the scene, which she then photographed. From there, she began painting.
Throughout her career and her various bodies of work, women's lives have remained a perennial theme. 'I photograph them naked in their own space and work from these images, building large figurative pieces from paint and tarpaulin, using little colour', she told the Independent in 2008. 'By capturing people in their own home, I want to in some way reconnect them with their personal space.'
In 2023, Schoorel staged a solo exhibition at the Amsterdam Museum, responding to the institution's collection. Schoorel was drawn, in particular, to the animal-loving, wealthy bohemian Louisa Willet-Holthuysen, who left her house and its contents, including her extensive art collection, to the City of Amsterdam to form the museum. Similarly, Schoorel also admired Sophia Adriana de Bruijn, an affluent patron of Dutch art, whose hobbies included collecting antiquities and painting. Using esteemed ladies as one of her departure points, Schoorel examined the role of women in the art world.
In 2015, Schoorel was honoured with a residency at the American Academy in Rome. Prior, she was shortlisted for the Prix de Rome, Amsterdam, in 2009 and the Wolvecamp prize in 2008.
Maaike Schoorel has been the subject of both solo and group exhibitions.
Solo exhibitions include: All About the Animal, Mendes Wood DM, São Paolo (2021); Tribute, Maureen Paley, London (2012); Zelfportretten & Stillevens, The Embassy of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, London (2011); and Nudes and Garden, Marc Foxx, Los Angeles (2009).
Group exhibitions include: Bonfire of Rhythms, Kunstplatform de Apotheek, Amsterdam (2022); Lust, Laughter, Liquor, Sofie van de Velde, Antwerp (2018); and Reading the Surface, David Zwirner, London (2013).
Articles on Maaike Schoorel have been published in various publications, including Flash Art, the Independent and Artforum.
Joe Bobowicz | Ocula | 2023
