There is a striking theatricality to the way memory settles on canvas in Vanessa Schiavone’s latest solo exhibit, “What Time Cannot Keep,” currently running at Improv Art Gallery until July 25. For an artist who considers herself a “human archaeologist,” her oil-on-linen paintings operate less like flat surfaces and more like psychological excavations, digging through the sediment of human behavior to uncover what remains when the ephemeral constructs of status, ego, and power are stripped entirely away.

If you ask Vanessa to categorize her visual language, she leans into a compelling complexity. “If I had to give it a name, I’d call it psychological surreal realism, although that’s probably the longest way possible to say. I paint emotions,” she shares.

This is also vividly apparent across her new body of work, where meticulous, classical realism meets distorted, dreamlike symbolism to map out the interior landscapes of love, mortality, identity, and transformation.

The thematic foundation of the entire exhibit relies heavily on a single, anchor piece, “Memories in the Cloud,” a hauntingly beautiful depiction of an elderly couple, their heads dissolving into cumulus clouds as they lean forward in a tender, eternal forehead-touch, holding a weeping, luminous flower.

“The piece that became the starting point of this exhibit was the painting of an elderly couple,” Vanessa explains. It made me reflect on what truly matters in life and what simply fades away with time. Our achievements, the knowledge we spend years accumulating, our ego, anger, and even our sadness are all temporary.”

This initial spark expanded into a profound influence on her other works. In large-scale pieces like “The Fall of the Flower King” and “You Can’t Look Away, Can You,” Vanessa interrogates the magnificent illusions of power and status. The paintings present bodies that merge with the natural world - limbs transforming into gnarled, rooted tree trunks, or multiple disembodied hands holding up floating crowns and burning candles while a masked figure sits on an ornate throne in a decaying forest.

“The paintings are inspired by emotions and stories that have deeply touched me,” she says. “They explore themes of power, love, memory, loss, and healing. I see each work as a theatrical scene where human emotions and contradictions unfold.”

Visually, the collection is unified by a recurring motif of smoke and clouds that wrap around her subjects’ heads like heavy, beautiful thoughts, as seen in “Echoes and Shadows I and II.” “Necks” are elegantly elongated, and cheeks are brushed with surreal, heart-shaped flushes of color, giving the figure a fragile, melancholic grace.

Her choice of medium is vital to achieve this deep, luminous atmospheric friction. A pivotal moment in her career occurred when she observed the depth of expression other creators achieved through oil paints. “That moment sparked my curiosity and led me to explore oil paintings as my own visual language,” she notes.

Today, her creative process is a balance between the tranquility of nature and the meticulous research of light and shadow. Living near the forest and lakes of Belgium provides her with peace and raw inspiration. Once an idea takes hold, she meticulously crafts the atmosphere: “I love working with light and shadow because they create a theatrical atmosphere and help reveal the emotions behind the work.”

Vanessa’s relationship with her work is deeply intimate, so much so that knowing when a piece is finished requires listening to an internal shift: “When the work stops speaking to me, I know it is finished,” she says. “It sounds strange, but during the process, it feels as if the painting is whispering something to me. When that voice disappears, I know it has reached its final form.”

Currently working out of a sun-drenched veranda studio surrounded by windows overlooking her garden, Vanessa is already looking forward to moving into a larger studio space next year to expand her creations. But for now, her focus remains on the emotional exchange happening on the walls of Improv Art Gallery.

Vannesa’s exhibit “What Time Cannot Keep” is not a passive viewing experience - it is a mirror. If this exhibit were a conversation, she intends for it to bypass polite small talk entirely.

“I want to encourage people to dig deeper into their own hidden layers. Like peeling an onion, I want the works to slowly reveal the emotions, memories, and experiences that we often keep buried. I want viewers to feel naked in front of my work, of course, not physically, but emotionally stripped of their masks and expectations. A place where they can simply be, feel, and confront their own humanity without judgment.”