1 March - 1 May 2026
Voices of Women
Ank Stegenga
Ank Stegenga in Voices of Women
Within Voices of Women, Ank Stegenga contributes a body of work that explores the intimate terrain between inner awareness and outward expression. Her layered, mixed-media paintings unfold as emotional landscapes — spaces where reflection, vulnerability and quiet transformation coexist.
Rather than depicting the external world, Stegenga translates internal movement — sensation, memory and psychological reflection — into colour, rhythm and abstract line. Elements of sea, nature and poetic imagery appear not as literal references, but as atmospheres that suggest depth and fluidity. Her compositions feel suspended between stillness and motion, as if something is gently surfacing from within.
Her background as a coach and counsellor subtly informs her artistic language. There is an attentiveness in her work — a listening quality — that mirrors processes of growth and self-examination. Each piece carries a contemplative resonance, inviting the viewer to slow down and reconnect with their own internal landscape. The layering of materials reflects the layered nature of human experience: visible and invisible, conscious and subconscious, fragile and resilient.
In the context of Voices of Women, Stegenga’s work speaks softly yet with clarity. It embodies a voice grounded in reflection, authenticity and emotional intelligence — a presence that does not seek spectacle, but depth. Her paintings create space for introspection and quiet strength, reinforcing the exhibition’s overarching theme of embodied perspective and inner narrative.
About Ank Stegenga
My work explores the inner landscape that emerges where experience, memory, and perception meet. I do not paint what is merely visible, but what becomes tangible through feeling: the tension between presence and disappearance, between strength and vulnerability. In my images, I search for moments when something briefly reveals itself and dissolves again — like breath, wind, light, or a passing thought.
What drives me as a maker is the need to create space for what often remains unseen. I experience painting as a form of looking and listening: to the body, to emotion, to nature, to what surfaces beneath the visible layer. Through this act of listening, a language of colour, transparency, movement, and line unfolds.
My work develops in mixed media, often built up in thin, semi-transparent layers that do not conceal but permeate one another. Lines mark transitions and traces of movement — sometimes connecting, sometimes fragile. Through repetition, removal, and re-addition, the image gradually takes shape, as if forming itself.
Themes of transformation, resilience, and identity grow organically within the process. Each work is an attempt to give form to an inner state — a quiet space where the viewer may encounter themselves.
