Laura Watters (b. 1989, San Francisco, CA) makes oil paintings that challenge and distort conventional narratives of femininity, identity, and addiction through the exploration of psychological turmoil depicted in charged imagery culled from various forms of popular media. Watters portrays women on the verge— their internal conflicts made visible through a subtle glance, a tense gesture, a gulp of booze, a pointed gun, a collapse. Struggling and resilient, fragile and powerful, Watters’ subjects exude desperation and transcendence in equal measure, creating a deep and unsettling tension that the artist leaves deliberately unresolved.