In the years since she first began making art as a teenager, Catherine Graffam has developed a keen ability to render emotional depth and personal insight through layers of paint. For most of her career her primary subject has been herself. Self-portraiture was an avenue for visualizing the trauma she experienced as a queer kid in rural Maine, and a way to explore and assert her identity as a trans person. However, after making this type of work for many years, Graffam felt that her practice of intense introspection had become an exercise in picking at old wounds rather than a process of personal healing.

With Closer, Graffam presents her first body of work focused primarily on portraits of other people. With these new intimate depictions of friends and loved ones, Graffam delves into a painting practice that seeks to nourish the soul. Instead of making work that dwells on the tragedy and pain of being queer, Graffam chose to shift her energies toward paintings that reflect queer beauty, love and hope.

You can shop Graffam’s solo show here.