Abbey Golden crafts an expansive, cinematic exploration of an elemental universe of
longing. Where her previous series grappled with early motherhood’s somatic
mechanics and their psychological ramifications, her new body of work takes a wider
view, capturing a shared sense of the very human realization that even within
paradise, yearning persists. Golden’s large-scale canvases present a world
suspended in delicate transition—sun-drenched pools, private interiors, and liminal
aquatic spaces where figures drift between waking and sleeping, rising and sinking.
Across these large-scale compositions, water acts both as a physical element and,
as Jung intended, a psychological mirror.
Blending rigorous classical training with contemporary mannerism and a love of
pattern, Golden’s figures—whether lounging on a sunlit pool ledge, exploring the
expanses of nature, or curled in quiet repose—offer viewers a deep, sustained
aesthetic engagement as the ambiguous action unfolds. Built across patiently laid
layers of oil paint that in itself embodies time's slow passage, each work culminates
in a bold, sweeping top layer of patterned light. These dappled, organic
shapes—shifting seamlessly between water ripples, swimsuit prints, and fractured
sunlight—span edge-to-edge, wrapping the entire composition in a dynamic visual
rhythm that invites the eye across every square inch of the picture plane.
Operating first and foremost as a colorist, Golden employs a signature palette of
faded pastels, luminous lavenders, electric teals, and golden-hour warmth. Her
ample figures encounter the world as we do—alone, in pairs, en famille, in our
dreams. And though her prismatic palette is not exactly naturalistic, its jewel tones
pulse with organic, auric energy—and these atmospheric hues evoke a dreamlike
nostalgia, acting as an emotional bridge into the narrative. Refusing to be relegated
solely to being understood as reflections on motherhood, in point of fact, these richly
nuanced works embrace the full continuum of multifaceted, contradictory experiences
that come with inhabiting a female body.
—Shana Nys Dambrot, Los Angeles 2026