{"id":958444,"date":"2026-05-14T03:38:25","date_gmt":"2026-05-14T03:38:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/958444\/"},"modified":"2026-05-14T03:38:25","modified_gmt":"2026-05-14T03:38:25","slug":"in-piercing-the-veil-marina-kappos-gets-to-know-the-spectre-of-grief-colossal","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/958444\/","title":{"rendered":"In ‘Piercing the Veil,’ Marina Kappos Gets to Know the Spectre of Grief \u2014 Colossal"},"content":{"rendered":"

P\u00e8re Lachaise Cemetery<\/a> in Paris is perhaps one of the world\u2019s most famous burial grounds, home to luminaries like authors Oscar Wilde and Marcel Proust, musicians and composers like Fr\u00e9d\u00e9ric Chopin, \u00c9dith Piaf, and even The Doors\u2019 Jim Morrison, among many others. Its family tombs and sculptural headstones are iconic, and when artist Marina Kappos<\/a> spent time wandering through P\u00e8re Lachaise during a stay in the city last year, she was intrigued by the sculptures of grieving women she encountered. \u201cThey seemed to hold a power in their sadness, but also great beauty and remembrance as they stood guard over many of the tombs,\u201d the artist says.<\/p>\n

In Piercing the Veil at SHRINE<\/a>, Kappos\u2019 solo exhibition that opens this week, the artist delves into the nature of loss and memory. \u201cGrief is a somber subject and multi-layered; it feels fitting for the time we\u2019re living in, but I also saw hope and life bursting through,\u201d she says. Few instances highlight the duality of life and death so well as the context of a cemetery, and that\u2019s where the artist honed in on her interest in relationships between presence and absence, the terrestrial and the spiritual, and impermanence and decay.<\/p>\n

\"a<\/a>\u201cVeil Study (Eclipse)\u201d (2026), acrylic on wood panel, 16 x 16 inches<\/p>\n

Piercing the Veil features Kappos\u2019 signature aura-like acrylic paintings<\/a> on wood panels in which thin layers of pigment create a kind of gauzily psychedelic, prismatic effect. Consciousness is at the root of her works, reflected in the title of the show, which references the idea of awakening\u2014of achieving some kind of enhanced comprehension or level of perception within one\u2019s world. \u201cThese paintings depict that threshold,\u201d Kappos says, \u201cmoving from one realm to another.\u201d<\/p>\n

Hazy landscapes unfold in the distance of some works, and keyhole shapes emerge almost Magic Eye-like in the center of several others. These focal portals unlock something, the artist says, \u201cperhaps our own beliefs and the haze of the unknown, or they can act like doorways to another time or place.\u201d And the figure of the widow, influenced by the gravestones, is present in elegant facial profiles and hands. Kappos likens her to someone who has not only been left behind but may be a spectre herself\u2014one that \u201chas power, magic, strength, and can potentially straddle two worlds.\u201d<\/p>\n

Piercing the Veil opens on May 15 and continues through June 27 in New York City. See more on Kappos\u2019 Instagram<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\"a<\/a>\u201cQuantum Study (Green Entanglement)\u201d (2025), acrylic on wood panel, 16 x 16 inches<\/p>\n

\"a<\/a>\u201cVeil Study (Whisper)\u201d (2026), acrylic on wood panel, 16 x 16 inches<\/p>\n

\"a<\/a>\u201cVeil Study (Sunset)\u201d (2026), acrylic on wood panel, 16 x 16 inches<\/p>\n

\"a<\/a>\u201cVeil Study (Pink Pansy)\u201d (2026), acrylic on wood panel, 16 x 16 inches<\/p>\n

\"a<\/a>\u201cVeil Study (Phantom)\u201d (2026), acrylic on wood panel, 16 x 16 inches<\/p>\n

\"a<\/a>\u201cVeil Study (Aura)\u201d (2026), acrylic on wood panel, 16 x 16 inches<\/p>\n

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