Christian Edler’s self-portraits hint at an inner conflict brewing within the artist’s psyche. Edler uses his own likeness for surrealist visual experiments, painting himself with various mutations that explore the battles we have with ourselves. In one work, Edler’s face multiplies over and over, creating a web of mouths, fingers, and eye sockets that seems bent on destroying itself. In another piece, he collapses face down in resignation, his face cracking like a ceramic vase. Other works are more hopeful, however, like the one where he cuts himself loose from puppet strings and heads towards a new destiny.
The small-scale gouache paintings by 
In recent work, 
Beijing-based painter and illustrator 