Ina Van Zyl’s Paintings might be read as still lives, reminding us of life’s brevity while rejoicing in the curve of a leaf or the purplish tint of a vein just beneath the skin’s surface.
Her work is a tribute to the beauty of life through the process of painting :
Genitalia, as well as plants, flower blossoms, cropped body parts, close-up portraits, and objects from daily life, such as pieces of fruit or a glass of water, have been a part of Ina van Zyl’s repertoire for several years now.
Often dark in tone, as though a shadow had been cast over the canvas, or awash in acidy greens and yellows, her paintings are enveloped in mystery or even disquietude.
Each of these small-scaled paintings could be seen as a detail, a significant fragment of some larger event that had gripped the artist’s imagination.
Painting from photographs that she’s either taken herself or culled from books or the internet, Ina van Zyl uses these potent reference images like preparatory sketches, departing from them as the painting progresses.
While her predilection for the close-up view and her strong sense of light and shadow are perhaps reminiscent of her work in comics when she was still a student in her native South Africa , her profoundly personal use of color communicates the intensity of the act of looking and imparts a palpable emotional charge to each work.
Diana Quinby