24 december 2024, Flor Linckens
The sensory world of Jessica Skowroneck
Until 26 January 2025, Studio Seine in Rotterdam presents the solo exhibition 'Where the Two Worlds Touch' by Jessica Skowroneck. With her vibrant and dynamic paintings and works on paper, Skowroneck creates inner landscapes in which the boundaries between consciousness and subconsciousness blur. Her work invites viewers to explore this space, where imagination and reality intertwine. Please note: the gallery is open by appointment only until 12 January 2025.
Jessica Skowroneck was born in Amsterdam in 1989, but grew up in the Swedish countryside. For her, landscapes serve as metaphorical self-portraits — a mirror of the body and mind, where interior and exterior worlds seamlessly merge and shape one another. Trees, rocks and rivers are not merely decorative elements in her work: they act as carriers of emotional and psychological depth. Her vertical compositions evoke associations with doors and gateways, extending an invitation to step across an imaginary threshold. In these untamed worlds, everything appears in flux. Mountains shift, the ground seems fluid, and rocks and trees take on a consciousness of their own. Skowroneck’s paintings inhabit a delicate balance between abstraction and figuration. Some works lean more toward one than the other, imbuing each composition with an enigmatic and layered quality. The artist encourages us to engage with the world in a more sensory manner, rather than solely intellectually.
Recurring themes in Skowroneck’s work include longing, vulnerability and transformation. Personal experiences, such as her desire for motherhood, her relationships and unresolved trauma, subtly find their way into her imagery and titles. Recent works reflect on her pregnancy: natural elements like rivers and mountains become symbols of growth, change and the construction of new structures. Regarding the piece "Embedded Worlds", part of the exhibition, Skowroneck writes on Instagram: “This drawing is part of a new series I’m working on that reflects on the changes in my body during pregnancy. This drawing is about the curious sensation of being two people in one, how my baby and I are both two separate beings and inextricably linked at the same time.”
The painting process itself plays a vital role in Skowroneck’s practice. She works quickly and intuitively, relinquishing control to allow the brushstrokes to guide the narrative. At times, she places her panels on the ground to physically engage with her work from a different perspective. Through this approach, she strives to free herself from conditioning, preconceptions and established frames of reference. The result is dynamic work that radiates a sense of freedom and spontaneity.
Visually, Skowroneck draws inspiration from the untamed natural world — not as a Romantic ideal, but as a broader, instinctive reality of which humans are an integral part. On her website, she reflects: ”As a child, nature was neither something to be conquered nor something to be longed for in a romantic sense. It was simply there, and I was part of it. This total and intimate relationship with nature and all surroundings is what I want to show in my work. Part of this relating is a sense of wonder and awe at the mystery of this world and the impossibility of intellectually understanding it. Still I’m trying to reflect something of this in my paintings. (…) Working as a painter can sometimes verge on madness, in those moments when you no longer understand what you are doing — when reason gives way to what emerges right before your eyes.”
This intangible quality was also noted in the jury report for the Royal Award for Modern Painting, which she received in 2014: “Skowroneck creates forceful work that radiates a great degree of freedom. Pure painting that is all about movement, light and colour. (…) This is work that deserves attention. At first sight it seems as if the artist is just playing around, but the longer one looks at the work, the more it grows. (…) The result is the creation of an almost intangible painting.”
Skowroneck draws inspiration from her childhood memories of Sweden, her dreams, photographs, her imagination and her garden in the Netherlands. By translating these elements into her paintings, the artist not only gains a certain grasp of her inner world but also brings forth a physical reality on the canvas that transcends the recognisable. This exhibition features a selection of paintings and four works on paper, executed in oil pastel.
Jessica Skowroneck holds a Liberal Arts and Sciences propedeuse from Utrecht University, an interdisciplinary programme that bridges various academic fields, followed by a Bachelor of Fine Art (with honours) from the HKU (Utrecht School of the Arts). The artist currently lives and works in Zeist. Her work is part of the collections of UMC Utrecht and the Dutch government.
