With her raw, narrative and figurative style of painting, Van Haver challenges the Euro- American canon. Her imagery is nurtured by art from ‘other’ regions and with that she tells ‘other’ stories. Although the format of her canvases is reminiscent of history painting, her compositions do not depict the exploits of figures from the west. At the heart of her work are the ‘spirits of the soil’, the central figures in the histories of colonialism, imperialism, migration and diaspora.
— exhibition curator Martijn van Nieuwenhuyzen, Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam