Jan Worst’s Objects and Icons (2017-24) epitomises the artist’s signature exploration of opulence, objectification, and the layered narratives embedded within domestic spaces. The work presents a lavish, grand interior – an archetypal setting in Worst’s oeuvre – that reflects the trappings of wealth and cultural refinement. In the foreground, a classical marble statue of a reclining Venus commands attention, her pose immediately evoking the archetype of the idealised, sexualised female figure so prevalent in Western art history. Beyond this stately figure, a doorway opens into another room, where a woman in contemporary dress kneels with her hands behind her head, gazing ambiguously upward and to the right, as if fixed on an unseen presence.

The juxtaposition of the two figures – the marble Venus and the kneeling woman – invites a myriad of interpretive possibilities. The woman’s pose, suggestive of surrender, imbues the scene with unsettling undertones, yet there is a palpable ambiguity that resists easy conclusions. The Venus’s timeless posture as a passive, objectified muse lends a disquieting context to the human figure, whose contemporary attire anchors her in the present yet renders her vulnerable through her submissive stance. Is her posture one of surrender or self-possession? Is she mimicking the statue or placed in a dynamic of imposed comparison? These questions remain unanswered, leaving the viewer to construct a narrative amid layers of tension.

Ambiguity plays a central role in Worst’s visual storytelling. He masterfully contrasts specificity with anonymity: the intricately rendered interior suggests a space teeming with personal history and social ritual, yet no clues are given as to its precise location or significance. Similarly, the identities of the figures are obscured – neither named nor explained – creating a sense of voyeuristic detachment that heightens the viewer’s intrigue. This withholding of context fosters a narrative gap that viewers instinctively seek to fill, making Objects and Icons an exercise in imaginative projection as much as aesthetic contemplation.

Worst’s meticulous painterly technique further intensifies the psychological complexity of the scene. His interiors, sumptuous yet suffused with a latent stillness, evoke the psychological interiors of 17th-century Dutch painting while remaining thoroughly contemporary in their conceptual concerns. The light, the reflections on the marble, and the precise articulation of textures all contribute to an atmosphere of artifice and spectacle – a world of beauty whose surface polish may conceal underlying unease.

Throughout his career, Worst has consistently explored themes of artifice, social performance, and the uneasy intersection of tradition and contemporary identity. Objects and Icons is no exception, offering an eloquent meditation on the power dynamics that pervade cultural ideals of beauty, sexuality, and objectification. The interplay between the classical and the contemporary in this composition underscores how persistent – and yet mutable – such ideals remain across time.