In ECHOES, Anne van As presents a new series of paintings inspired by mangrove landscapes she encountered during earlier travels.
The exhibition’s title draws on the musical principle of the echo: a sound, melody, or motif that returns repeatedly, each time softer, more diffuse, or subtly transformed. For centuries, composers have used this effect to create depth, rhythm, and a sense of space. A similar layering runs throughout the exhibition, where memory, reflection, and time continuously merge and overlap.
At the same time, ECHOES references the myth of Echo and Narcissus. Echo remains unseen, while Narcissus is captivated solely by his own reflection in the water. This tension between seeing and being seen forms an important point of departure for the exhibition.
In Van As’s paintings, mangroves, roots, and dense vegetation appear both as landscapes and as reflections on the water’s surface. These reflections are never entirely clear: forms dissolve, distort, and shift. Just as memories change over time, the image itself remains unstable.
The works emerged from a return to a landscape visibly altered by time and climate change. Yet ECHOES is not solely concerned with the disappearance of nature. It also considers the ways in which memories continue to resonate—softer, more diffuse, and less sharply defined than their original source.
Van As’s paintings exist at the threshold between figuration and abstraction. Fields of color, shifting light, and shadows create images that unfold gradually, rewarding sustained attention.
With ECHOES, Anne van As presents a contemplative exhibition about landscape, memory, and visibility—and about what remains as an echo, even as the original image slowly begins to fade.