Bernadette Despujols

A self-portrait of Bernadette Despujols greets visitors to her solo show, “Exquisite Cuerpo.” The richly textured oil painting, Siete meses (Seven Months), all works 2024, depicts the artist sitting in a hammock surrounded by foliage. The flora’s deep-green color matches that of her pants, as if she is part of the environment. Despujols’s round, pregnant belly and breasts are exposed, and her dark hair blends into the leaves behind her. The artist’s expression is calm and inscrutable as she stares into the distance in a moment of introspection, perhaps contemplating the life growing inside her.