When we last caught up with artist Caia Koopman, she was preparing for her 2012 exhibition “Behind Wind and Water” featuring her colorful, tattooed characters. Almost a year in the making, her new series of paintings, “Figments”, opens October 7th at Distinction Gallery. She will display a mixture of her usual motifs and themes, inspired by love, loss and connections. Animal rights and environmentalism are political topics of importance for Koopman which she lightens up with splashes of color. Animals, especially birds, and mythical creatures are often combined with emotional symbols of personal meaning. Her work for “Figments” is a bit brighter in hue, which she contrasts with more black than in previous shows. The show will boast an impressive twenty paintings in addition to miniatures. Koopman talks about her subjects as if they were real, feisty little birds and girls who challenge her as she paints. She shares, “I’ve incorporated love and music and looked a little deeper into our connections with nature. I paint in bright colors, contrasting with black, I use an idealized female character to tell a story and express emotion.”
“Figments” by Caia Koopman exhibits at Distinction Gallery, CA from October 7th – November 1st, 2014.
The arresting paintings of 
Omar Rayyan’s mythological paintings call upon a centuries-old sensibility while showcasing the artist’s penchant for the monstrous. His new show at Haven Gallery, titled "Fins, Feathers, & Fangs," collects new works from Rayyan, who was last featured on our site