ABOUT

Anouk was born in 1989 in the Netherlands and raised on the Lower Mainland in British Columbia. She studied painting in San Francisco at California College of the Arts. While living in the Bay Area, Anouk developed a painterly style that is characterized by large brush strokes and a vintage pallet. Since graduating with a Bachelor of Fine Arts, her paintings have been exhibited internationally in solo and group exhibitions.

She has combined her passions for art and travel, participating in artist residencies in France, Germany, and Canada.

She currently resides on Vancouver Island, where she continues a studio practice while finishing a Ph.D. in art history from Queen’s University. Her academic interests include the history of art collecting and art connoisseurship, as well as painters in the Low Countries between the thirteenth and seventeenth centuries.

Artist Statement

(the short version)

Anouk's work navigates the space between memory and invention, and considers painting as a form of escapism.

Her paintings evoke themes of childhood, domesticity, and leisure, creating spaces that feel both familiar and imagined. Drawing on the compositional structures of early European painting, she merges these influences with imagery from rural Canadiana, domestic interiors, and figurative photography. Through layered compositions, she reconsiders scale, narrative clarity, and formal conventions, inviting the viewer into an active role in constructing meaning.

More broadly, her practice questions the role of painting within the contemporary art landscape. Is painting dead?