Surrealist oddities that juxtapose beauty (and our relationship with it) with something more ominous, an unknown disquiet; Caitlin Keogh’s graphical paintings challenge perceptions of gender, of body and the self — always with an illustrative approach that harks to the early days of fashion advertising.

Currently showing at New York gallery Bortolami, Loose Ankles shows off Keogh’s singular style and complex questioning of the construction of self; ‘she ties the questions together in the plainspoken dialect of a sign-painter,’ explain the gallery, ‘using a generally tasteful colour palette, incorporating feminine yet sinister subjects.’

Broken bodies, female hormonal glands, Christian Dior’s autobiography, beautiful yet prickly flora; Caitlin Keogh’s tangled interrogation of femininity, set to a distinct graphical aesthetic, is captivating and quizzical. ‘Keogh posits that painting could describe an unraveling or tangling of a fixed self, gender, body, or historical paradigm instead of conforming one.’ The gallery continues. ‘The work connects to the feminine idea of the construction of self and uses the performance of gender as an allegory for personal feelings about art history and painting.’

Caitlin Keogh’s Loose Ankles continues at Bortolami, New York, until 29 October.

@bortolami_nyc