There is historic comfort in believing that animals know our secrets and how to soothe them. But a dog will watch us watching it, blink once, and dig another hole. This body of work plays off our own longing for closeness while reflecting on our idolization of animals. Characters shift between socially wrestling and merging together, bringing us into their tangled inner worlds. Acrylic on paper guides these ambiguous confrontations with permanent marks that are later scratched into, revealing the underlying paper again. Together, the skewed and compressed bodies tilt towards an off-kilter, mysterious intimacy.

These works were part of Ellis Fox's solo show at Redux Contemporary Art Center, on view Aug 28-Oct 10
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