Elizabeth Glaessner writes about her experience of paintings by Karin Mamma Andersson, first in reproduction, and then in person at the recent exhibition Mamma Andersson: Behind the Curtain at David Zwirner Gallery, New York.

Glaessner writes " …standing in front of the paint was a transportive experience and as I imagined her process, the stories opened up and I saw the work on a different level… I don’t know that I have one favorite painting in Behind the Curtain, but I’m still thinking about Burden. Initially, I saw a child’s room with crooked paintings that seemed a bit off kilter. It took me a while to understand where I was standing in relation to the space, and then I quickly realized that this room wasn’t built with people in mind. As I looked closer I felt more and more shaken. The rust-colored stain lining every object in the space became blood. Suddenly, the paintings on the wall were crooked because something horrific had happened, but nobody had been there to discover what. Then I looked at the other paintings around me and I realized that it was a dollhouse with tiny furniture. But actually, no, it was a painting, so it could be all of that, or none of it at all."