And Everyone Just Watched

Currently on display at London’s Black Rat Projects, Candice Tripp‘s “Petit Mal” is a dark, ironic exploration of childhood trauma and sexual shame. The heavy (and often disturbing) subject matter is masked by the artist’s storybook-like painting style. She centers her figures on white backgrounds with plenty of negative space, rendering masked children in a forest that could have been inspired by any Brothers Grimm fairytale. The titles of the works — such as Bitch Thinks She’s Special and And Everyone Just Watched — prompt the viewer to imagine what kind of storybook narrative these scenes might belong to. Brimming with visual details, each work has violent undertones hidden among the oak trees and thorny bushes of the enchanted forest.

Tell me Where you Hid my Diaphragm, you Bitch

It All Works Somehow, In the End

They Call him “Faggot”

The Cookie Cutters

Get Up, Hannah. No One Forced You to Become a Slut.

I Know you Fucked Him, Amy!

The Past is Everywhere

She Just Sat There Holding Its Legs Open

They Took Care of Things in Their Own Way

There Must Be Something in the Water

Bitch Thinks She’s Special