vanOs

vanOs’s work excavates the hidden stories of those who came before us. She retraces the comings and goings of living creatures and reinterprets their meaning through painting, sculpture, installation and video.

Calling on symbolism, artifacts and abstraction, vanOs explores how the crossing of paths impacts identity. The artist states: “What fascinates me is how seemingly random encounters can influence or even completely alter the course of a life, be it human, animal or insect. Encounters are a collision of energy, and this energy becomes part of the trail you walk.”

vanOs creates her narratives using a visual language relating to geography, navigation and archetypes. Organic symbols -- the earth, water, the egg, the bean -- hearken back to a primal locus of germination, concentrated energy and endless possibility.  Others evoke paths, rails, ladders, or intersections, bringing a relentless cadence to the pieces as if recording every step taken, corner turned, milestone reached.

In this of work, deeply saturated color interplays with blacks, whites and grays, producing expressive, textured mapscapes. Found objects combine with wood, metal or glass to forge three dimensional travelogues of pilgrimages and forgotten vagabondage. 

From termite trails to epic migrations, vanOs pays homage to the universal movements of living things as evidenced by earth’s ever-changing imprint.

vanOs is a Dutch-born artist based in West Orange, New Jersey.  She studied art at Atelier Hourdé and Ecole Camondo in Paris, at the Corcoran School of Art in Washington, DC (BFA) and at the Art Students League in New York. Her work has been shown in the United States and in Germany.

To contact the artist and to see more of her work visit vanosstudio.com