‘Closer’ is the title of one of the paintings depicted here, though it could describe any of Ina van Zyl’s rich colourful works, often using impasto layers of paint to emphasise the texture of skin and hair. Her trademark is the ability to bring a semi-abstract, often landscape-like, quality to elements of the human body (and in her other paintings of similarly detailed subjects), encouraging us to enjoy their pattern, symmetry and texture as much as their real-world content.

Her vulvas offer swathes of multi-hued folds, valleys and hillsides; her cocks are volcanic cones or giant mushrooms. Thus they possess exactly the same qualities as, for example, a walnut half or a smooth rounded stone, leaving the viewer wondering what exactly it is that imbues an image with sexual energy.