Originally sent by email on 23.11.25.
nodenaysteen newsletter #21 — November 2025
Welcome on Friday, November 28, 2025 from 6 PM to 9 PM
The world of Merel Jansen (°1990, NL) smells of turpentine and oil paint. It is filled with color, form, and movement. In her early years, portraiture provided a foundation – a way to understand the world behind the stories of others. However, Merel discovered that the true power of her painting lies not in mimicking the outside world, but in making her own experience visible. Sadness and anger, but also wonder and vulnerability, transform in her work into a language of color and form. What weighs heavily in existence becomes a source of energy in paint.
Color is more than a medium: it is reality. In Merel's synesthetic experience, numbers, people, and memories are carriers of color, meeting each other in collision or harmony. A form determines what a color can be; a color reveals what a form means. Thus, a game emerges in which painting does not so much depict the world, but creates a new one – a space where intensity and resonance are central.
Merel refuses to be confined to one style or label. Abstract and figurative works appear side by side, as two perspectives on the same existence: the outer and the inner, the mask and the heart. The viewer is invited to see both at once, thereby constructing a third reality for themselves. In that tension between looking and experiencing, between distance and involvement, perhaps the true meaning of her work arises.
In a time when truth is increasingly diluted into projection and pose, Merel seeks in her paintings what cannot be feigned: the directness of feeling, the intensity of color, the freedom of gesture. Her paintings are not statements, but questions – invitations to slow down, to look through the layers, and to discover what 'real' means for each of us.
Vernissage 'Merel' by Merel Jansen on Friday 28/11 at 6 PM
After the vernissage, the exhibition can be visited from Saturday 29/11/2025 to Sunday 11/01/2026, always on:
WELCOME!
Note: closed on December 25, 2025 and January 1 & 2, 2026
welcome on November 28/29/30 and December 5/6/7, 2025!
How do we translate our experience of seeing Merel's work, what questions does it raise, and what answers can Merel Jansen provide?
On Saturday 13/12 (children) and Saturday 27/12 (adults), we are organizing workshops with Merel Jansen:
An abstract work transcends reality. It depicts what is not visible. What do color, form, and composition say? In the studio, you translate your experience onto the canvas.
In her workshops, Merel Jansen guides you step by step into the language of paint and brush. You don't need any experience – curiosity is enough. Those who have been painting for a while will find depth, technique, and the freedom to experiment here.
December 4, 2025 - 7:00 PM
Dear artist,
Every two weeks we come together for an inspiring session of drawing from a live model in the atmospheric Galerie Nodenaysteen. Everyone is warmly welcome – master or student, with or without experience. Do you want to learn, perfect your style, or simply enjoy the moment? You belong here! We would love it if you come! (Max 10 participants)
You are warmly welcome to all our activities!
Team DeNode @ Nodenaysteen
Predikherenlei 4, B-9000 Ghent