Pepi Vegas aims her unflinching gaze at a world made up of both turbulence and grace. With a naturalism supported by the urgent expressionism of dramatic brushwork, she invites us to perceive the dance between beauty and the chaos at the heart of that beauty. At times political, her subjects are frequently those on the margins of our awareness, but whether portraying those in the crosshairs of military aggression, or faces subsumed by the painting's own background of gray, like stone threatening to smother any trace of identity, or even the melancholy of the natural world limned with gold lines, the potential of humanity is her primary inspiration.

Black slashes frequently add an anxious edge, just as her controlled yet zealous dripping technique adds a sense of chaos, whether in the face of a portrait or an otherwise serene still-life. Pepi Vegas wants us to see our world anew, and to perceive in ourselves our capacity for beauty, and our struggles with our shadows.