(Her paternal grandmother, Norma Quarles, was one of the first Black TV journalists.) On her canvases, polymorphous, shape-shifting figures collide and intertwine; heads multiply; limbs get entangled with each other. Then using vinyl stencils, she applies the digital patterns onto the canvas. For her, using Illustrator is “a way of bringing a sketching process halfway through the painting” and a means to direct and focus the composition of the work. It’s this tension between the digital and the analogue, the way her figures oscillate between ecstasy and pain, confinement and freedom that gives her work its power.

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Persons: Christina Quarles, ”, Norma Quarles, “, ‘, you’re, Jordan Casteel, Quarles, — Organizations: Black, Yale Locations: Los Angeles