Maike Freess’s mixed-media artworks combine drawing, painting and collage elements to create figurative portraits that appear to unravel, melt and decay. The pensive subjects in Freess’s works are rendered with playful textures — sometimes wax-like, sometimes as if spun from delicate thraeds. References to 20th-century surrealism permeate the work, whether intentionally or not (one can’t help but think of Dali’s sensual baguettes or Tanguy’s desert landscapes when viewing the characters’ growth-like fingers and limbs). Take a look at some of Maike Freess’s works on paper below.