As a curator, Anna van Schaap has written proposals and curated exhibitions for major Galleries and Museums through the curatorial organization she established in 2014, Things Feel Heavy. Van Schaap is interested in work about the 'personal-politcal'. Both her artwork and curatorial work often call attention to oppressive societal structures that limit progress. She was born in Grand Rapids, Michigan, and attended the University of Michigan’s School of Art and Design, focussing on Fine Art, Art History/Curatorial & Museum Studies, and Women's Studies. After college, she moved to Detroit, where her interest in communication became a focus in her work and curatorial practice. Influenced by her Midwest upbringing, and the repressive identity politics associated with the region, her work overlaps surrealist painting with traditional portraiture, while exploring ideas of gender dynamics, destruction of the femme, symbolism, ritual, communication (or the inability to communicate), and the psychopathology that arises from being silenced.