Marcel Dzama (b. 1974, Winnipeg, Canada) is a Canadian contemporary artist known for his whimsical and surreal drawings, paintings, and dioramas. His work often features imaginative creatures, masked figures, and dreamlike scenarios, blending elements of folklore, fairy tales, and modern pop culture. In The flowers of indulgence, a lithograph from 2021, a masked woman sits in the foreground, holding a red dahlia, surrounded by flora and fauna including a cat playing a fiddle. The scene is cryptic and tense; while a clear narrative is difficult to decipher, it’s easy to make one up as the image is open and playful. Dzama's distinctive style has earned him international acclaim and exhibitions at numerous prestigious institutions. Dzama's work invites viewers into a unique, imaginative world that challenges the boundaries between the real and the subconscious.

Admire Kamudzengerere (b. 1981, Harare, Zimbabwe) is a multifaceted artist renowned for addressing complex socio-cultural issues, exploring themes of identity, politics, and society. Kamudzengerere’s monotypes began as a coping mechanism after his father’s death in 2012. Initially created through intense self-reflection and the search for familial likeness, these works evolved into a unique blend of traditional and experimental printmaking techniques. Untitled moves fluidly between chaos and control, and back again. In contrast to the other works in the show, Kamudzengerere creates an approximation of a likeness without specific features. The result is no less striking.

Roy Lichtenstein (b. 1923, New York, New York; d. 1997, New York, New York). Inspired by comic strips, Lichtenstein created the meticulous composition in his 1984 multimedia print titled Two Paintings almost exclusively in primary colors, outlined in solid black, with space represented by color planes, stripes, and Ben-Day dots. Two Paintings explores the relationship between representation and abstraction, a concept that extends across most of Lichtenstein’s work. The print invites viewers to consider the act of portraiture as a complex experience.

Danielle Orchard (b. 1985, Michigan City, Indiana)’s works pays homage to the great modern-era painters like Picasso and Matisse. The work Utility features an abstracted female nude against a pitch-black background squeezing a phone between her shoulder and ear and holding a bright flashlight close to her face. The figure’s half-lidded eyes glance lazily to the right of the composition, calling attention in several ways to things off-paper: what is her gaze catching, and who has she called? As in many of her portraits, Orchard employs muted emotions and body language to allow viewers to connect with and reflect on the subjects in her work. Unlike in many of her forebears’ works, though, the female figure is active, complex; a heroine rather than a muse.

Andy Warhol’s Sunday B. Morning 11.23: Marilyn Monroe, is a series published by the once authorized distributor Sunday B. Morning. The project began after Warhol collaborated with Belgian friends to create editions of his renowned artworks, including Marilyn, Flowers, and Campbell's Soup Cans. Iconic in its depiction of Marilyn Monroe, the series conflicts the actress’ image with the symbol she came to represent. Warhol’s notorious style, groundbreaking in its conception and many times over modeled after, flattens the likeness, distilling her into color. As Warhol intended, the piece is slick, bright, punchy: an advert for a widely reproduced emblem of beauty.