In her second solo exhibition with Setareh X, artist Astrid Styma has created a world both pristine and troubling. Many of Styma’s paintings are of nude female bodies, which have an aura of mannequins, robots, or digital avatars, rather than living, breathing women. In these works, the figures’ faces are always turned away from the viewers, creating a sense of anonymity. In other works, Styma has painted a pair of ears or eyes onto canvases that mimic their shapes, a gesture that both conjures trompe l’oeil paintings and dystopian sci-fi. What’s most striking about Styma’s paintings is their peculiar palette of bluish grays and blush tones, which impart an eerie coolness to her figures and forms, granting the viewer a disquieting sense of isolation and loneliness.
