Artworks inspired by chess boards, landscapes, and nature by Sydney-based artist Sasha Krautman. Chess is a game filled with contrast, order, mystery, luck, and fate. For Krautman, there’s a lot of symbolism to be found in one game, even in one simple black and white pattern. Her collection consists of 12 chess board-style art pieces, each bringing together 2 images that simultaneously oppose and fulfill the other. In “Melancholie My Friend,” for instance, Krautman offers a reflection on on melancholy, not as something to escape, but rather as something to be kept close:

“A woman’s figure dissolves into the grid, as if memory and landscape are playing their own quiet game. The shifting squares echo thoughts half-held and half-lost.The bluebirds rise above with a whisper of wings — maybe it’s a thought, maybe it’s a goodbye, or just the part of her that’s ready to lift off while the rest still lingers in the bittersweet nature of letting go.”