Maaike Schoorel Lives and works in Amsterdam, b. 1973, Santpoort, the Netherlands

The subject matter of Maaike Schoorel’s paintings is drawn from familiar experiences and everyday encounters. Schoorel uses the immediacy of photography to gather source material for her paintings that are, in turn, rooted in the art-historical genres of landscape, portrait, and still life.   

In order to decode the subjects concealed in Schoorel’s brushwork, her audience must adopt a slower approach to looking that allows space to combine visual perception with the imagination. Descriptive titles seem to mislead the viewer, who is initially confronted with an illusion of abstraction and whose contents hover in a melée of colors. Schoorel’s paintings ask that viewers remain present within the experience of looking and understanding – resisting the need for immediate image gratification that prevails within the circulation of images we encounter day to day. What is eventually presented through this sustained contemplation is neither the immediacy of the photographic snapshot nor the labor of a restaged scene. Instead, Schoorel’s work gives space for her subjects to reveal themselves and to be reinterpreted in the mind of the beholder of a restaged scene. Instead, Schoorel’s work gives space for her subjects to reveal themselves and to be reinterpreted in the mind of the beholder.   

Maaike Schoorel (b. 1973, Santpoort, the Netherlands) lives and works in Amsterdam.   

Some of the artist’s solo exhibitions have been held by Mendes Wood DM, New York (2024); Willet-Holthuysen, Amsterdam (2022); Mendes Wood DM, São Paulo (2021); Museum Dhondt-Dhaenens, Deurle (2020); Gemeentemuseum, The Hague (2017); Fondazione Memmo, Rome (2016); Frans Hals Museum, Haarlem (2012); and Museum de Hallen, Harleem (2008).   

Additionally, her work has been included in group exhibitions at Mendes Wood DM, São Paulo (2023); 7th Biennial of Painting – Inner Spaces, Deurle (2020); Het HEM, Zaandam (2020); Mendes Wood DM, Brussels (2020); Gropius Bau, Berlin (2019); Gemeentemuseum, The Hague (2017); 20th Sydney Biennale, Sydney (2016); Kunstverein Amsterdam, Amsterdam (2015); Guangdong Times Museum, Guangzhou (2014); Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, San Francisco (2014); Manifesta Foundation & DutchCulture, Amsterdam (2014); Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA), Los Angeles (2014); CCA Wattis Institute for Contemporary Art, San Francisco (2011); Nottingham Contemporary, Nottingham (2010); Hayward Gallery, London (2010); Glasgow Centre for Contemporary Arts, Glasgow (2010); Plymouth Arts Centre, Plymouth (2010); and Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam (2008).   

Schoorel returned to Amsterdam in 2016, having spent many years living in London, New York, Rome, and Berlin. She has undertaken residency programs at Van Wassenhove House, Deurle (2020); KNIR, Rome (2016), Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Science, Amsterdam; American Academy in Rome, Rome (2015); and ISCP, New York (2012).