Zaida Gerritsen is a visual artist living and working in Victoria, BC on unceded territory of the Lekwungen-speaking peoples of the Esquimalt, Songhees and WSÁNEĆ nations. Working with the traditional medium of oil paint and knowledge of interior architectural histories, her practice explores the tensions between depictions of domestic environments and the reality of those who existed within them. Gerritsen holds a BFA. (Hons), in Visual Art and has been the recipient of the President’s Award, the Dr. Milada Horakova Scholarship, the John Wyatte Price Book Prize in Photography and the Diane Mary Hallam Achievement Award. Gerritsen has had many opportunities to showcase and curate works in gallery exhibitions since 2021.
Gerritsen's paintings invite the fluid relationship of women and the domestic interior, using ambiguity and abstraction to view homes as subjective living spaces. The traditional application of oil paint is rooted in the dominant view of male artists who depicted domestic environments, yet did not functionally participate in those spaces. She explores kitchens, bedrooms, and dining rooms while paying special attention to the ideas of the home in which women were and still are synonymous. Working with historical uses of colour, in particular red and neutral tones, she specifically references domestic interiors which include ideas of fabrics (wallpaper, curtains, and rugs), hallways, bedrooms, bathrooms and private changing spaces.