Kristina Schuldt’s Kesselbruch explores the fractured body under industrial pressure. Drawing from Cubism and Futurism, she redefines the female form through distortion, tension, and surreal color. A striking vision of modern identity and its breaking points.

Emma Stern’s Fawn is part creature, part code — a haunting meditation on synthetic beauty, digital identity, and what it means to be seen.

Koak’s Beholden offers a quiet yet profound meditation on emotional introspection, solitude, and inner complexity. With bold colors and symbolic detail, the painting captures a moment of stillness heavy with reflection. Catherine Gipton delves into its psychological depth in this ninth CathEssay.

In Prom Night Reckoning, Robin F. Williams dismantles the fantasy of the prom queen with dazzling colors and raw emotion. A tiara becomes a burden, a rose a symbol of pressure. Through vibrant textures and piercing symbolism, the painting reveals the quiet panic behind performative perfection — and invites us to reconsider what we call “the perfect moment.”

Emma Webster’s Blake is a visionary painting where organic shapes explode into a surreal forest dreamscape. Glowing forms, dynamic movement, and mythic overtones transform a natural scene into something radiant and strange. Through layered oil painting, Webster invites us to experience nature not as it is, but as it might become — alive with energy, tension, and unseen forces.

Bridget Mullen’s Border’s Buckle explores transformation, instability, and the dissolution of form. Blurring the lines between figure and abstraction, the work pulses with motion and emotion. Through layered textures and symbolic tension, Mullen invites us into a liminal space — where identity shifts, boundaries buckle, and new meanings emerge.

Dannielle Hodson’s Knot is a vivid and entangled vision of human coexistence. Figures twist, collide, and dissolve into a chaotic yet strangely harmonious composition that explores the tension between disorder, identity, and emotional connection.

In Pane (2023), Tschabalala Self constructs a bold portrait of fractured identity using fabric, paint, thread, and digitally printed linen. The work explores the layered nature of selfhood, perception, and visibility, inviting viewers to reflect on the textures—both literal and metaphorical—that shape how we see ourselves and others.