Open Studio is pleased to present Great Expectations, the first solo exhibition of painter and bookmaker Victor Van. Drawing from images and language gathered from the internet, radio, and American popular culture, the exhibition brings together paintings that reflect the America Victor Van sees—expansive, saturated, and emotionally charged. Visions of triumph and excess sit alongside moments of familiarity, longing, and unease, forming a body of work that feels both overwhelming and intimate.

In the studio and in his work, Van is driven by acts of observation and gathering. Sifting through screenshots of movies, food, art history, and current events, he translates fragments of the digital world into acrylic paintings marked by loose brushwork and saturated color. Beginning each piece with a graphite grid, Van resizes and paraphrases his source material, allowing meaning to shift through the process of translation. In the artist's words, images become both “excruciating” and “exhilarating,” altered just enough to feel newly alive.

Across the exhibition, Van’s paintings form a cumulative portrait shaped by excess and contradiction. Hollywood fantasy, visions of home and belonging, cloying sweetness, spectacle, and the domestication of the wild coexist within compositions that oscillate between critique and affection. Rather than resolving these tensions, Van sustains them—allowing humor, intensity, and ambiguity to remain fully present. Together, the works read as a compressed and deeply personal view of contemporary America, as filtered through Van’s singular eye.

Victor Van (b. 1993) has practiced at Interact Center for the Visual and Performing Arts since 2016.  Interact, located in Saint Paul, Minnesota, is a progressive, studio for artists with disabilities, fostering progressional, high-quality, and collaborative art creation. He has presented work in exhibitions throughout Minnesota and beyond, including at the Minnesota Museum of American Art, The White Page, Make Studio, the Cargill Gallery at Minneapolis Central Library, and the Institute on Community Integration at the University of Minnesota. In 2025, Van was featured in Interact’s booth at Open Invitational Miami, and his work is featured in Interact's booth at the Outsider Art Fair New York this year. Two of Van's artist books were recently acquired by the Walker Art Center. Great Expectations marks his first solo exhibition.

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Victor Van , Heaven on Earth by Nicky Boehme, 2019, acrylic on paper, 12.5 x 14” / courtesy the artist and Interact, St. Paul