Between the Lines presents a selection of works by Johannes Jan Jr. Schoonhoven from a distinct period in his artistic life. Rather than introducing a new body of work, the exhibition brings together works created over the course of more than a decade, offering a view into a significant chapter of Schoonhoven’s artistic practice.
For Schoonhoven, art has never been something that can simply be produced on demand. It cannot be summoned by the prospect of an exhibition, a deadline or the expectation of something new. An artwork is created when the right circumstances, experiences and inner necessity converge. In that sense, it is less manufactured than born.
The works presented in Between the Lines are witnesses to such a period. Their rhythm, repetition, relief and interaction with light belong to a chapter that Schoonhoven does not wish to recreate or imitate simply for the sake of continuity.
In recent years, his creative energy has found another expression. Schoonhoven has dedicated much of his life to developing and providing eye care, combining prevention, technology, medical screening and human attention. His work takes him from communities in the Netherlands to Africa, where he helps provide access to eye examinations, retinal imaging, glasses and further medical care.
Perhaps unexpectedly, this path remains closely connected to questions that have always surrounded his artistic practice: light, perception, looking and seeing. Trained in optometry, Schoonhoven has long been fascinated by the eye, vision and perception. This background has previously found its way into his artistic practice, inspiring work that is also presented in Between the Lines.
The eye is where light enters the human body and perception begins. For Schoonhoven, this has created a remarkable continuity between two seemingly different worlds. His art has perhaps not disappeared at all. It has temporarily taken another form.
The title Between the Lines therefore speaks not only to the visual language of the works themselves. It also points to the space between different chapters: between making and not making, art and life, light and perception, what is visible and what remains unseen.
Schoonhoven believes he will return to making new visual work. He has already begun contemplating a future project that would reconnect his artistic practice with Africa and with the experiences that have shaped his life in recent years. But he refuses to determine when that moment should arrive.
When something needs to be made, it will be.
Until then, the works in Between the Lines remain what they have always been: authentic traces of a particular moment in an artist’s life, one that cannot simply be repeated.
