The meticulously rendered paintings of Poonam Verma are celebrations of femininity. Creating colorful composition that are almost pointillistic in style, it’s typical of Verma’s work that a woman emerges as the subject of her work. Colored block by colored block, these figures express a range of different attitudes and present themselves through a variety of demeanors. Some of Verma’s women are athletes; others are (like herself) more creatively inclined, sometimes musically. In any case, what stands out is the way a feminine figure emerges out of a grid of patterned squares.

Rhythm Of Life shows a violinist set against a gilded backdrop. Something like a nude, the brightly colored units that compose her skin contrast with the continuous density of the hat on her head. Recalling Victorian-era portraiture, the way Verma renders her subject lends it a diffuse power that focuses not so much gender, or even embodiment, but rather on the creative energy of the intellect as it works to shape gendered bodies. In this way, the painting wraps the body of the female figure in abstraction, like a caliginous mist.