A selection of recent paintings by Sri Lankan-American artist Shyama Golden. Born in Texas, Golden’s work utilizes world-building and narrative to reveal the constructed nature of identity. The series, “Too Bad, So Sad, Maybe Next Birth,” exhibited at PM/AM gallery in London earlier this year. The paintings follow the idea of past lives and deaths as Golden charts her own over the past 200 years.

“The shapeshifting character Maya wears a ghillie suit and Kolam masks to perform different social roles and phases I’ve inhabited throughout the years.”