Samantha Van Heest (b. 1998) is an artist and art educator currently residing in Boston, MA. She has exhibited her work across the United States and Europe. Van Heest has had solo exhibitions at duPont Gallery at the University of Mary Washington and HOMME Gallery in Washington DC. Her work has been included in various group shows at spaces such as UMBRELLA Art Fair (Washington DC); Hamiltonian Artists (Washington DC); Magma Maria (Offenbach am Main, Germany); Boston University (Boston, MA); The University of Maryland (College Park, MD); among others. She was featured in New American Paintings South #148 and has worked for the contemporary painter Amy Sherald. Van Heest is a 2026 recipient of the prestigious Elizabeth Greenshields Foundation grant. She is a member of the RAMP Art Collective in Boston, MA, and former member of the 2024 Sparkplug Collective at DC Arts Center. She has been awarded residencies at the Torpedo Factory, The Peter Bullough Foundation, and the Elf School of the Arts. Van Heest earned a BA in Studio Art from the University of Mary Washington in 2020, and is an MFA Candidate in Painting at Boston University.

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“When I enter a room, I study it. I take in the space, analyzing and finding fragments of life that speak to a bigger story. What is kept? What is adorned? What is revealed in plain sight, and what is tucked away? 

Utilizing still life, trompe l’oeil elements, and vignettes of the everyday, my paintings are glimpses of these nooks and crannies. I use my living spaces to find my subjects, and as a result, they become excerpts of human pleasures, connections, and intimacies. Through the absence of the figure, I am curiously painting traces of human life; I find that these seemingly mundane artifacts reveal greater narratives. 

I am taking new material approaches in the way I prepare my surfaces. Exploring substrates that range from slick and thick to bumpy and highly absorbent, I am beginning to draw inspiration from texture and atmosphere, leaving the photo reference behind. 

I am noticing – finding repetitions and evidence of having-been-there in these lived spaces. I am painting to feel the room, to preserve the moments of human connection before they slip away. ”