Abstract yet simultaneously full of figuration, the present work resembles, and seems to reassemble, recognisable yet unknowable forms, demonstrating a subversive preoccupation with the ambiguous corporeal. Some forms make loose reference to objects of everyday life, while others retain a familiarity without being placeable. Against a dark background, altered and nightmarish cartoon-like figures drift, ooze and squat across the painting’s surface, challenging constructed notions of balance and harmony in favour of an all-over, consuming composition. “Disney on acid” is how her paintings have been described and Voyeurs’ Interfear fully occupies this uncanny space (Alina Cohen, “Stefanie Heinze,” Art in America, 1 March 2018, n.p.). Anthropomorphised objects and unhuman figures, rendered as fleshy forms caught in flux, appear to merge into one another in a confusing mass of semi-abstraction. There is no coherent sense of natural perspective or depth, with eyes, hands, tongues and strange tentacle-like objects painted in seemingly random places and configurations across the canvas. As soon as one form moves into view, another takes its place, demanding attention; likewise, while almost seeming familiar in parts, longer looking reveals a composition that resists recognition.

Crucially, Heinze is guided by instinct and intuition rather than any didactic or historically informed concern. Inherent to her painting practice are her primary drawings which she tears up and reconstructs. This kind of collage technique disrupts singular relationships and straightforward narratives in favour of generating new, evolved and disturbed forms: “Newsense,” as Heinze calls it. The present work emblematises this in its vivid use of variegated colour and texture, gesturing towards a kind of symbolism. She works on each canvas until form and space exist in continual flux, a creative process that promotes multiple interpretations and intrinsic developments. In this way, the meanings of her works are not premeditated but rather evolve and emerge from a melange of conscious and subconscious thought, memory and feeling. Heinze has created a visual universe that promotes the interplay between high and low culture, questioning contemporary social norms through a witty, lyrical subversion that sets her apart as categorically unique.