A selection of recent paintings by New York-based Italian artist Bea Scaccia. Exploring themes of myth, monstrosity, beauty, childhood, and fairy tales, Scaccia’s paintings and animations have an air of mystery to them, resisting obvious definition in favor of open-ended interpretations. Her works contain clear references to the “animalist” world, which she describes as “so dear to the zodiac and the metamorphosis, and so present when describing non-conforming women.” But Scaccia’s work approaches the subject through the plasticity of faux ornaments and accessories that recall interiors and domesticity: “Everything is a mask, a costume; everything can be read in several ways.”

Likening her limited chromatic range to that of fairy tale illustrations, she believes that “a minimal, but sinister, palette makes surfaces count more, and the surface contains the layering.” Quoting Maria Tartar, she says: “Like ‘storytellers draw on heterogeneous versions of a story, mixing and mingling, erasing and preserving, destroying and restoring,’ I define my visual works through a similar process. The result is a ‘parade of variants.'”

See more from Bea Scaccia below!