The Painting Lesson is Jacqueline Peeters’s second solo exhibition at Annie Gentils Gallery. On the floor downstairs, Peeters presents several large paintings - layered and patined as a result of her frequent overpainting – alongside smaller, more loosely painted works. In Peeters’s oeuvre, rage competes with stillness, boldness with tristesse. Her work balances between romantic scenes – a mountainous landscape, a lovers’ bed - and a more matter-of-fact stance. When she loses herself in the former, she seeks a counterweight by painting something concrete: an invitation card, a personal ad, a floor plan, or a list of art collectors' names.

In the room upstairs, Peeters shows her works on paper. These are colourful and, due to the use of olive oil, partly transparent, thus revealing her earlier drawings on the back side. It is as if Peeters wants to shrug off all heaviness. By hiding and revealing, through frolic self-mockery and drama, Peeters gives us a lesson in painting.