Jan Schau

Jan Schau is an emerging Los Angeles artist who draws upon her long career as a lawyer and mediator to see perspectives and harmonize dissenting points of view.
Life is full of transitions. Jan Schau is a Southern California artist whose work explores memory, fracture, resilience and the quiet emotional landscapes that shape human experience. Working primarily in oil, she creates figurative and symbolic compositions that invite the viewer to discover their own narrative.
Before focusing on art, Schau spent two decades as a lawyer, later turning her attention to civil mediation. That work demands perspective taking, creativity, empathy and courage. Her years spent listening to competing truths, navigating human complexity and pathos has lead her to a deeper understanding of what lies below the surface. All of this informs Jan’s artistic vision as she focuses upon not only the black and white of the law, but the shades, the shadows, the contours and the images which are displayed in everyday scenes.
Jan is a student of Internationally acclaimed artist and founder of Z Art Academy, Zhenya Gershman, where she has developed and honed a practice grounded in classical technique, but laced with contemporary narrative and metaphor. Her paintings examine themes of transition, identity, betrayal, hope and transformation, balancing realism with evocative symbolism.
Rather than offering definitive answers, Schau intends her work creates space for reflection, inviting the viewer to indulge in a second look and a deeper understanding of the images before them. As with mediation, there is a certain kinetic and intentional ambiguity which is evoked, making space for balancing complexity with empathy, restraint with transparency, honesty with accuracy.
Schau lives and works in Los Angeles, where she continues to paint while balancing her still active mediation practice.