Currently on view until January 3rd, 2026 at Thinkspace Projects in Los Angeles, California is artist Roos van der Vliet's solo exhibition, "Back in the Present Future."

"The title 'Back in the Present Future' reflects what I believe we’re capable of as humans: the strange and beautiful ability to be here, in this moment, while also roaming time.To look back, to imagine forward.To exist in memory and possibility at once. Our minds are vast. As vast as the universe. And when I paint, I try to start from that place, from that infinite space of inner time. These paintings are little anchors to pull me back into now. And to offer you the same.

The women I paint, whether friends, strangers or myself, are not performing. They’re present and quiet. In a state of non-doing, unapologetic. They’re here, and you, the viewer, are allowed to be here too. Painting hair is part of that. It’s something I return to over and over again, almost obsessively. The repetition calms me. But it also connects me to something larger. In the flow and layering of hair, I see the same organic rhythms that appear in rivers, branches, lightning, and galaxies, fractal patterns that echo throughout nature and the cosmos. I see those same patterns in the eyes I paint. When you look closely into an iris, it’s like staring into a galaxy. The same structures, the same mystery. That’s what draws me in.

Lately, the color Prussian blue began to insist on its presence. First hidden in the underpainting, now increasingly visible on the surface. I didn’t plan for it, it insisted on being there. Blue, for me, has become a space rather than a color, a quiet depth that allows things to breathe. Allowing it in has meant letting go of control, trusting the painting to unfold as it needs to." — Roos van der Vliet