Whether they are submerged in pools of luscious impasto paint, or melting on blankets rippling over brushy patches of grass, Chrissy Angliker’s nudes exhibit a carefree harmonization with their environments. As she states, “the human body and the banks of a river, are both vessels for the same element. Water is an essential component of their composition, and also the intermediary between these vessels.” Each fluid mark contains a multitude of colors, both revealing and obscuring the human form beneath its slightly reflective, acrylic veneer. Larger paintings, such as Poke Your Shadow, are made of layers so thick that there is an actual depth to the water, the surface betraying the motion below with flickering ripples of paint, like whitecaps on the ocean. Close enough to touch, the nudes are relaxed, approving of our presence; we are participants, looking at “women through the eyes of a woman.”

Born in Switzerland and living in New York, Angliker sets these paintings in vaguely familiar, yet unidentifiable, locations. On her canvases, as the presence of the paint grows, the images disintegrate and float apart. “My ultimate desire is that the viewer should be able to see the paint separately, like the microscopic cells from which the illusion gets created. The bigger the gap, the more space for the viewer.” When approaching one of Angliker’s paintings, you piece together the fragmented image, “see the transparency of how it was created,” and ultimately, share that time and space with the artist.