In The Shape of What’s True, Amanda van Gils presents a contemplative body of work exploring memory, perception, and the layering of lived experience. Through watercolour and graphite, van Gils constructs translucent surfaces where traces of text emerge, dissolve, and reappear, echoing the shifting nature of understanding and the quiet accumulation of thought over time.
The artist writes:
“These paintings reflect on how a life gathers within itself. Each thought, moment seen, felt, or remembered leaves a trace, joining what came before. Like strata in the earth or layers of water and air, experience settles and shifts, forming the ground of who we become.
In the studio, this understanding takes material form. Watercolour and graphite build translucent surfaces where traces of text appear and fade. The materials matter, their behaviour shaping the work as much as any idea. Some words remain, others dissolve, a quiet evidence of what we know and of what we have yet to understand. Their partial obscuring ensures the paintings are not fixed in meaning, leaving room for viewers to bring their own stories and interpretations.
My fascination with how people think and change informs this work, though it begins in lived experience rather than observation of others. Each painting holds a version of self, shaped through time and attention. Together, they reflect on perception as the shifting shape of what is true, provisional, layered, and completed only through the encounter with the viewer.”
Please join the gallery for opening drinks with the artist on Friday 12 December, 6–8pm.
