Another Day in Paradox

Essay by Shana Nys Dambrot

Abbey Golden crafts an expansive, cinematic exploration of an elemental universe of longing. Where her previous series grappled with early motherhood’s somatic mechanics and their psychological ramifications, her new body of work takes a wider view, capturing a shared sense of the very human realization that even within paradise, yearning persists. Golden’s large-scale canvases present a world suspended in delicate transition—sun-drenched pools, private interiors, and liminal aquatic spaces where figures drift between waking and sleeping, rising and sinking. Across these large-scale compositions, water acts both as a physical element and, as Jung intended, a psychological mirror.

Blending rigorous classical training with contemporary mannerism and a love of pattern, Golden’s figures—whether lounging on a sunlit pool ledge, exploring the expanses of nature, or curled in quiet repose—offer viewers a deep, sustained aesthetic engagement as the ambiguous action unfolds. Built across patiently laid layers of oil paint that in itself embodies time's slow passage, each work culminates in a bold, sweeping top layer of patterned light. These dappled, organic shapes—shifting seamlessly between water ripples, swimsuit prints, and fractured sunlight—span edge-to-edge, wrapping the entire composition in a dynamic visual rhythm that invites the eye across every square inch of the picture plane.

Operating first and foremost as a colorist, Golden employs a signature palette of faded pastels, luminous lavenders, electric teals, and golden-hour warmth. Her ample figures encounter the world as we do—alone, in pairs, en famille, in our dreams. And though her prismatic palette is not exactly naturalistic, its jewel tones pulse with organic, auric energy—and these atmospheric hues evoke a dreamlike nostalgia, acting as an emotional bridge into the narrative. Refusing to be relegated solely to being understood as reflections on motherhood, in point of fact, these richly nuanced works embrace the full continuum of multifaceted, contradictory experiences that come with inhabiting a female body. 

— Shana Nys Dambrot, Los Angeles 2026