Georgina Gratrix at Nicodim

At Nicodim, Georgina Gratrix’s figures and still-lifes with a gloopy impasto paint application. The faces of her figures ride a line between comical and slightly disturbing. Swabs of thick paint fold into disfigured personhood: melting noses, multiple sets of eyes, large textural gashes across cheeks. Some even have googly eyes embedded in the thick paint. Many of the paintings are intimate self-portraits or paintings of loved ones, but unlikely celebrities, politicians, and athletes including Scottie Pippen — appear in the mix.

The upstairs gallery shows a series of self-portraits called “Nine Weeks.” She made each portrait over two months in early-pandemic, while the artist experienced a military-enforced quarantine in South Africa. The emotions represented on the artist’s face move from shock to despair to self-care to utter bewilderment — a familiar range of emotions felt in lockdown.